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In the away game earlier in the season we'd played well with Jay Rodriguez and Wes Fletcher causing them problems all night. Here they were partnered together again and again both did well, but when the opportunities came the shots were just off target.
Jay, in particular, came close on a number of occasions but a bobble here and a bad bounce there always made it that more difficult and Sunderland keeper Trevor Carson was left with less to do than he might have expected.
It was even more the case at the other end where Diego Penny was redundant for long periods of the game, although he did have one or two worrying moments when he came for balls played into the box and got nowhere near them.
The closest we came was through Alex MacDonald in the second half. He broke down the right hand side and Carson was just able to get to his excellently executed chip.
But it was Sunderland, with just a couple of minutes remaining, who got the winner when Ryan Noble got through and finished comfortably. We threw Neil Yadolahi up front to try and force an equaliser but there was too little time.
Sunderland reserve coach Keith Bertschin admitted: "The conditions were not conducive to football. The surface meant the players needed an extra touch. That invited a tackle and the game was niggly because of that."
A 0-0 draw would probably have been a fair result but thankfully when we are next in action on Thursday of next week against Manchester United it will be played at Turf Moor.
The teams last night were;
Burnley: Diego Penny, Curtis Woods, Neil Yadolahi, Kevin Long, Jake McEneaney, Frédéric Nimani (Michael King 45), Adam Kay, Alex-Ray Harvey, Alex MacDonald, Jay Rodriguez (Dom Knowles 72), Wes Fletcher. Subs not used: Danny McDonald, Ed Williams.
Sunderland: Trevor Carson, Robbie Weir, David Brown, Adam Reed, Michael Kay, Michael Liddle, Liam O'Mahoney, Jamie Chandler, Oumare Tounkara, David Dowson (Ryan Noble 72), Nathan Luscombe. Subs not used: Liam Noble, Michal Misiewicz, Dan Madden, Conor Hourihane.