West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce lamented the decision to award Sunderland a penalty in Saturday's 1-1 draw but paid tribute to his side's character in securing a point.

The Hammers fell behind when winger Adam Johnson went down under a challenge from James Tomkins, with Dowd seeing sufficient reason to award a spot-kick in the hosts' favour.

Former Wigan Athletic playmaker Jordi Gomez stepped up to stroke the penalty beyond Adrian but it took the Hammers just seven minutes to draw level at the Stadium of Light.

The in-form Stewart Downing grabbed the equaliser for the Hammers, driving low beyond Costel Pantilimon via the aid of a deflection to claim his third goal of the season.

Goal-shy Sunderland striker Jozy Altidore missed a glorious opportunity to put Sunderland back in front when he failed to connect with a cross, whilst Hammers defender Aaron Cresswell missed a one-on-one for the visitors.

West Ham were indebted to goalkeeper Adrian at the death, with the Spaniard displaying strong palms to push over a stinging effort from Connor Wickham. Andy Carroll also came close late on, firing wide with three minutes remaining.

Speaking to the club's website, Allardyce was less-than-impressed by Dowd's decision to award a penalty for Tomkins' challenge on Johnson.

He fumed: "I can sum up the situation just like this as to why the Sunderland player went down - he was running towards the touchline, he has overhit the ball, he's not going to get a cross in and there is no danger, so he had a little dive and made the referee or the assistant referee make a decision.

"There was no danger, there was no need for us to go tackling him because he wasn't going to anywhere or create any danger. All those assessments have to be made very quickly by players and by officials on what they do and unfortunately the assistant referee has made a horribly wrong decision by giving the penalty.

"Phil Dowd, in his position that we've had a look at on the analysis, could not have seen it because there were three players in front of him."

However, the Hammers boss was encouraged by how quickly his side forced an equaliser against Gus Poyet's men and lauded the mental strength of the Hammers in doing so.

Allardyce opined: "Our overall performance was one where we would get to the last ten or 15 minutes and sit back in and protect the point, but this time we didn't.

"We wanted to win it and you could see all the players went and tried to win it. I'm delighted that all the defenders did their jobs correctly and didn't let themselves get caught out by the odd breakout Sunderland did have.

"Like I said, away from home a point is always acceptable, but overall we're disappointed we didn't win."

It is a mark of how far the Hammers have come this season that they were left disappointed by only taking a point from the Black Cats, whilst extending their unbeaten run in the Premier League to four, and Allardyce commented: "We can't get too greedy, can we? We had three wins on the trot and have one defeat in ten.

"Under normal circumstances, the chances we created and who they fell to, apart from the one golden chance that fell to Aaron Cresswell who is not a natural finisher, fell to our natural finishers. Unfortunately they didn't convert them.

"In the end, one defeat in ten off the back of a week with three victories, picking up a point away from home, has us ready for Leicester at home next week and trying to get three more before we go into the Christmas mayhem."

The Hammers return to Upton Park on Saturday to host bottom-of-the-league Leicester City.