Simin Grayson reserved plenty of praise for Duncan Watmore following the winger’s return to action against Preston North End.
The 22-year-old has missed the last 10 months due to a knee injury, but he announced his comeback in style with an action-packed 26-minute cameo catching the eye
Meanwhile, George Honeyman and Aiden McGeady were the scorers at Deepdale as Grayson’s men ended a run of defeats and put in a performance worthy of three points.
And speaking to safc.com, the Sunderland boss revealed why Watmore’s return and a positive showing will ensure confidence is high heading into the international break.
“We’ve been playing a safety game with Duncan but it was always our intention for him to get 30 minutes and he looked a threat.
“He could have had a penalty and I think that incident where he got smashed by the goalkeeper will help as well, because when you come back from a long-term injury the one thing you’re wary of getting some bumps and bruises, and he certainly got knocked about there.
“When we went behind it was a good atmosphere and it was lively,” continued Grayson.
“The supporters were behind their team but we didn’t crumble.
“We responded and we got over that little storm when they came at us, but ultimately we stayed in the game and it was a great goal from Geads to get back in it.
“We’ve shown what we mean at this football club, we didn't get the perfect result but the care and passion that we showed as every man contributed.
“It’s going to be a balance over the next two weeks before we play again between work, lads away on international duty and some rest as well.
“One or two will benefit from the rest and one or two will benefit from a couple of [under-23] games coming up as well, but overall we’ll look forward to going into the QPR game with more confidence.”