David Moyes believes his players took pride in wearing Sunderland’s shirt today as they picked up three points at the KCOM Stadium.
George Honeyman headed wide in the opening minutes as the Black Cats set their stall out from the very first whistle.
Hull City struck back, with Kamil Grosicki causing all kinds of problems in the wide areas, but came up against a stubborn Jordan Pickford who was in top form to deny Sam Clucas.
Oumar Niasse and Alfred N’Diaye then fell afoul of squandering guilt edge chances, and the Lads made them duly pay for their lacklustre finishing.
With 22 minutes left, Billy Jones stooped low to head home John O’Shea’s flick off Honeyman’s corner, and then Jermain Defoe joined in to net his 15th of the season in the dying embers.
Speaking post-match Moyes delivered his verdict.
“We have not had that (winning feeling) for a long time and it is good for the players to feel better about themselves,” he said.
“We can go into next week feeling much better and try to enjoy it.
“It is disappointing that we have been relegated but the performance today has been to a similar level of recent weeks.
“We scored some good goals at the time but we also had a goalkeeper who made a couple of crucial saves and that helped us as well.
“They showed pride in wearing the jersey and they showed their own personal pride.
“We talked about that and we wanted them to show what they could really do,” he continued.
“When results don’t come people look at the performances and I think the performances have been at a good level.
“(The fans) are one of the big reasons why Sunderland is such a big club. We get 40,000 people at home and we sell out our away allocations.
“I’m glad the supporters got the chance to see us win and take something back to Sunderland with them."
