Darren Bent was quick to praise his team-mates despite grabbing a hat-trick as Sunderland eased past Bolton.

Bent struck all three goals in the second half, including a penalty after Sam Ricketts saw red for a second yellow card after flooring the frontman when he was through on goal.

The former Spurs man - whose goal tally now stands at 19 - served another reminder that he's not yet out of the running for consideration for the World Cup this summer.

Typically, though, Sunderland's leading scorer was complimentary about his team-mates, particularly Fraizer Campbell, who scored the opening goal after just 43 seconds.

"I thought the team played really well to get back on track. We've been showing signs of recovery and tonight we took our chances when they came along," he told SAFC TV.

"A lot of the time it's been 0-0's, but Fraizer took his early goal really well and that settled us."

Bent notched at a crucial time just after the hour to give Sunderland a 2-0 lead, latching on to a feed from Lee Cattermole to finish explosively.

And when faced with a penalty to make it 3-0, the striker admitted he called on past experience against Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen to maximise his chances of scoring.

Bent said: "Catts gave me a great ball [for the second goal] and I was able to cut inside and get my shot off. I think Jussi got something on it but he couldn't save it.

"I put the penalty away and then when Fraizer cut the ball back from the goal-line late on, I managed to get in and finish it off.

"The penalty was an important one. I've taken a couple of penalties against Jussi before and put them in the same spot. I saw him edging that way, so I decided to change it today and thankfully it went in."