Wilson Isidor has sent a bullish message to his Sunderland teammates after the draw against Plymouth Argyle.

Sunderland were held to a 2-2 draw by Plymouth Argyle on Saturday at the Stadium of Light and missed the chance to close the gap on the promotion spots in the Championship.

The Black Cats were below par throughout the game but looked to have snatched the win when Isidor and Trai Hume scored after Ryan Hardie’s opener. But substitute Nathanael Ogbeta scored in stoppage time to mean the hosts missed a huge chance to cut the gap to the top two.

Speaking after the game, Isidor said the group as a collective did not show “enough character,” and added that Sunderland “cannot” afford not to take maximum points from games against opposition sitting towards the bottom of the Championship table.

“It was a tough week. It didn’t start well but I’m only thinking about the present and not about the past,” Isidor said after the game. “So this week, we took five points. I think we should take more and I’m the first in the line to say we cannot do that. We should finish that week with nine points.

“Today we just didn’t show enough character. I think when you play against the last of the ranking, you should be more aggressive, more efficient, and show more efficiency and today we didn’t. So I really hope that our group is going to react in the next game. We have the player for, we have the quality for, we have the coach for. So yeah, we just need to react now to show that we really want to go up.

“We faced one solid team of Plymouth. Now we are, it’s difficult to say that because we are Sunderland, you know, so we have to be better than the other team, no matter where it is. So today was so frustrating for myself first, because I didn’t touch a lot of ball and we didn’t show enough character in that game.”

“I understand, but we are not here to look at the other teams,” Isidor added when asked about Sunderland’s missed opportunity with Sheffield United losing 3-0 to Hull City on Friday night. “If we play like that, for what? So we just need to focus on ourselves before looking at the other games.

“Think about winning our duels, our game, and to be efficient, to have to show efficiency everywhere in the two boxes, in our box and the opponent box. And yeah, as I say, now we need to show character, to show that we want to go up, and that’s the most important thing.”

Sunderland are next in action against Middlesbrough in the Championship on Monday evening at the Riverside Stadium as Régis Le Bris’ team look to return to winning ways against the Teessiders after Saturday’s slip-up versus Plymouth Argyle at the Stadium of Light.