Sunderland came from behind to pick up a point in Scotland as they played in a testimonial match for Andy Lawrie.

The Bairns were unable to play Arnau, who is on loan at the Falkirk Stadium from ourselves, as he was injured. Sunderland started with a strong line up, featuring Darren Ward, Greg Halford, Ross Wallace and David Connolly alongside the returning trio of Stan Varga, Andy Cole and Dean Whitehead.

Our returning skipper created a chance early on, as David Connolly nodded just wide from Whitehead's flick on, before another returning star, Andy Cole, also came close with an effort while under pressure from Bairns defender Dean Holden on 15 minutes. We continued to pepper the home side's goal, as Ross Wallace and Roy O'Donovan put efforts wide as Falkirk's on-loan Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul watched on.

At the other end, Darren Ward had to get down low to deny Graham Barrett's shot after the former Arsenal and Coventry man managed a shot on goal on 26 minutes. Patrick Cregg put a shot over ten minutes later after some good work from Russell Latapy, but the home side took the lead on 38 minutes, when Liam Craig's goal-bound cross deflected off of O'Donovan and past his own goalkeeper.

Greg Halford headed against the bar in first half stoppage time, with Peter Hartley, Graham Kavanagh and Dean Whitehead being replaced by youngsters Jordan Henderson, Conor Hourihane and Martyn Waghorn at the break. We came out for the second half revitalised, with Wallace forcing two saves from Krul early on, before we equalised courtesy of another deflection. Halford's initial shot on 59 minutes was going wide, only for the ball to deflect into the path of Roy O'Donovan, who had no problems making up for his earlier error.

The substitute Henderson fired wide from the edge of the area moments later, as Kenwyne Jones came on as a sub for the final 20 minutes, replacing Andy Cole, as it was all Sunderland for the remainder of the game. Connolly headed wide from Halford's cross with a quarter of an hour remaining, as Jones had a header saved by Krul, but in the end we didn't spoil the party as Lawrie's testimonial match ended in a draw - even though we had a late scare as Danny Collins needed treatment in stoppage time after he collided with the goal post!

Sunderland: Ward, Halford, Collins, Varga, Hartley (sub 46, Henderson) O'Donovan, Whitehead (sub 46, Waghorn), Kavanagh (sub 46, Hourihane), Wallace, Cole (sub 70, Jones), Connolly. Subs: Jones, Higginbotham.

Falkirk: Krul, Lawrie, Barr, Milne, Holden, Thomson, Latapy, Cregg, Craig, Finigan, Barrett.