He has seen the Black Cats take 15 points from their last six games, catapulting them into 11th position in the Premier League.
Martin O’Neill (talking to the Sunderland Echo): “Naturally I’m delighted, because first and foremost we have won five of our last eight league games which is very important.
“Those wins were necessary. If you win a couple of games in this league, you feel like you can beat Barcelona and Real Madrid combined, whereas if you lose a couple you want to know where the next point is coming from.
“Outside the top four or five sides, who can conjure more wins than normal, it’s the same for a lot of clubs.
“That said you still have to go into games with as much confidence as possible and not let yourself be affected by set-backs. We did that well at Wigan.
“Our form has been really good in the league and the most important issue now is to add wins.
“We’ll go into Tuesday’s game with great confidence again.”