"It was important that we backed up last week's decent performance. I'm delighted for the players, maybe we had a bit of luck.
"There's no problem with Chimbonda, I have to try to pick the right team to get a result. Pascal and Carlos (Edwards) came down as part of the squad today. I've got to try to pick team to win the game and it worked out OK. I have a decent squad, it gives me options.
"Tottenham caused us one or two problems but we stayed positive and we got our rewards, it was a great ball in by Murphy and is was a great header.
"We had that threat - sometimes you are only as good as your strikers. Lucky for us, one of our substitutions worked out and Cisse scored.
"We're here to try to change the stats and history of club, we were aware that we had not won here in 30 years.
"I've haven't been here long and we're trying to change things, the mentality. I believe Sunderland fans came down here believing we could get a result, instead of hoping. I certainly did.
"We showed good mental strength to react after Tottenham scored. You have to have good options and I did today on the bench, which I didn't have last season.
"We took our chances, we stuck at it, people might have seen a different side to us. We are trying to be a bit more street-wise and we had a bit more steel. We were raw an innocent last season.
"It was important today that we won. It's well and good running them close, but you have to get a result. When we played Tottenham last year, we played quite well against them and we lost 2-0.
"Even when they equalised today, I knew we were up to the challenge," he told the club's official web site. "We're not dancing in the streets, we're building that mentality where we want to come to these places and give them a game.
"This time last year, we did not get a win away from home until March, we need to back it up now, at Forest on Wednesday.
"It's a good result but let's not get too carried away.
As to the winning goalscorer; "I had no intentions of Cisse starting the game, he only had his first training session yesterday.
"I thought it would be good for him to sit on the bench and plug in to what we are about. But it's great for him to come on and score, he's hit the ground running.
"He has got a presence, like all good players, and I just felt he could contribute today. We've had a good result here but I'm convinced we can play far better."
