SUNDERLAND midfielder Tobias Hysen came off the bench to secure a point in manager Roy Keane's first home game in charge of the Black Cats.

The Swede struck just seconds after arriving as a 65thminute replacement for Liam Miller to cancel out Matty Fryatt's opener and deny Leicester victory at the Stadium of Light.

His intervention could hardly have been more timely as the Black Cats started well but faltered badly.

And they looked destined to follow a three-game winning run with a defeat, despite Dwight Yorke's early introduction in front of a crowd of 35,104.

Keane's arrival on Wearside gave rise to guarded optimism, and successive victories at Derby and Leeds under the new manager on top of the home win over West Brom simply served to increase that. The Irishman, while not wanting to dent the excitement, has spent much of the last two weeks warning that fortunes can change rapidly, and his caution proved well founded in the opening 45 minutes.

There was once again much to applaud: Kenny Cunningham's solid defending, Graham Kavanagh's distribution, Chris Brown's industry and the pace of Ross Wallace were all positives for Keane.

However, Leicester, as so many sides will this season, arrived determined to spoil the party and would have been more than satisfied with their efforts as they walked off at the break.

Chris Brown had flashed an 11th-minute header just wide and Stanislav Varga had forced a good save from keeper Paul Henderson with a 19th-minute volley.

But the Foxes rallied and as the home side became careless, left-winger Levi Porter began to cause problems, forcing goalkeeper Ben Alnwick to clear hurriedly and setting up defender Patrick McCarthy to head over.

It was Leicester who took the lead three minutes after the break when Andy Johnson cashed in on Miller's mistake to slip the ball through Varga's legs and allow Fryatt to cut inside and slot past Alnwick.

Fryatt saw a long-range effort deflected wide four minutes later and McCarthy powered a header just off target from Porter's 54th-minute corner as the Wearsiders struggled to re-group.

Keane responded by replacing full-back Neill Collins with combative midfielder Grant Leadbitter and asking Dean Whitehead to line up on the right side of defence.

Sunderland were looking increasingly ragged and desperately in need of inspiration, and the Irishman looked to Hysen to provide it when he sent him on for Miller with 65 minutes gone.

The move paid off within a minute when Hysen unleashed a skidding leftfooted drive which clipped defender Darren Kenton and flew past Henderson into the bottom corner.

Hysen might have doubled his tally within four minutes when he headed wide from a Wallace cross, and the home side had strong appeals for a penalty waved away by referee Mike Pike after Brown went down 15 minutes from time.

The tide had turned once again and the Foxes were having to defend deep and in numbers as Sunderland pushed for a winner.

But the visitors had not given up hope of leaving with all three points, and Fryatt might have done better eight minutes from time after being set up by Johnson and Chris O'Grady.

Brown headed powerfully over from a Wallace free-kick three minutes from time, allowing the Foxes to leave with something to show for their efforts.