Saturday 4 February 2017 18:38, UK
David Moyes hopes that the 4-0 win against Crystal Palace on Saturday can be the start of a good run of form for Sunderland.
The Black Cats remain bottom of the Premier League after Hull beat Liverpool 2-0, but they are level on points with the Eagles and two points from safety.
After keeping their first away clean sheet this season, Moyes is hopeful that it can spark more positive results for his side.
"If we're going to be in a good position, we're going to have to keep clean sheets and win some more games away from home," he told Sky Sports.
"It is two clean sheets in a row for us now though and I always thought we needed a run at another point in the second half of the season and let's hope this is the start of it.
"We had a difficult month in January with people away at the Africa Cup of Nations and quite a few injuries. We had one or two new players today, Bryan Oviedo played very well for us, but having the boys back from the cup has helped us as well and we put in a really good performance today."
Sunderland opened the scoring inside ten minutes as Lamine Kone scored his first goal for the club, with record signing Didier Ndong also netting his maiden strike in the 43rd minute.
It was swiftly followed by a Jermain Defoe double in first-half injury time to round off a fine performance in the opening 45 minutes, with the players coming in for praise from their manager.
"I'm glad we've got Ndong back from Africa. He got the goal and has played well in the two games since he has been back," Moyes added.
"He is a young player and he will get better and improve as he goes along but he is doing some good stuff from us just now.
"Defoe has got goals in him. I said before the game that we somehow have to get him more opportunities to score. I don't know if we did that today but the two or three he did, he finished them."
