The Blues were two goals up inside 35 minutes through well-taken strikes from Darius Vassell and Trevor Sinclair, but for long stretches of the match they struggled to contain a committed Sunderland side. Apart from the goals themselves, City had few other clear-cut chances - but they can point to another valuable away win, and their ability to make the most of what opportunities came their way.
“Maybe the only things I can take from the game are the way we took out goals, and winning the game,” said Pearce. “It is a very down dressing room after winning the game.
“They’ve walked in after winning a game and they are disappointed. I thought we got better in the second half, but credit to Sunderland, I thought they bossed the game. For long periods they were the better side. They deserved a draw and probably deserved to win, if I’m quite honest.”
The boss was obviously relieved to leave the Stadium of Light with three points under his belt, but with a short gap until the next match at home to Portsmouth, he is well aware that there is much to improve on and no room for any complacency.
“I don’t think we’ll play as bad as that again. We wanted to go half measures and do the pretty stuff tonight, when it was a night to do the dirty stuff first. The pretty stuff was the goals, which we did take extremely well, they were two excellent goals. But, we wanted someone else to do all the running for us, someone else to make the tackles.
“It was good enough tonight to get the result, but there will be other days when it won’t be good enough. They are aware of that, but I’m pleased we won.”
