Sunderland are out of the bottom three after a 2-0 win over Stoke City.

Two goals in the final 10 minutes from Patrick van Aanholt and sub Duncan Watmore saw the Black Cats ease past Stoke City, who played virtually the entire second half with 10 men after skipper Ryan Shawcross was sent off for a highly questionable second bookable offence.

“We're not getting carried away, but these are two fantastic results," Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce said. “We still have a huge amount of work to do, because we've 12 points from 14 games, which is a really difficult position.

“It's still relegation [form] – we might be out of the bottom three, but it's still relegation on points-per-game played.

“We've got to make sure we lessen that gap and the quicker the better, and certainly winning three of my first six games takes us towards where we want to be going, because I said when I came here that I didn't want to be doing what the club has done in the last three years, and have to win a huge amount of the last six or eight matches.

“Let's do it as quickly as we can."