Steve Bruce was understandably relieved to see his side record their first win in four at the expense of Bolton Wanderers.
Speaking to The Official Site at full-time, the gaffer said he told the players to ‘calm down’ during the break:
‘I told the players at half time to calm down and let me do the worrying. I wanted them to try and enjoy it.
‘Both teams looked nervous and edgy in the first half and I wanted to take the shackles off a bit. Thankfully we did that in the second half.’
Unsurprisingly after Bruce’s earlier comments this week, there was praise for the Black Cats travelling support too:
‘I must say a special thanks to the supporters.
‘There’s not many clubs who’d bring 4,500 fans when their team could have been near the bottom at 5pm.’