He should have been revelling in "Hammer of the North" headlines, as the Trotters followed up victories at Newcastle and Middlesbrough earlier in the campaign.

Instead, he just took satisfaction in a job well done. "It's great to come anywhere and get a result, but to come to the North East and get two wins off the bounce in consecutive weeks is even better – Boro last week, Sunderland this week," smiled the Bolton manager.

"It's a hotbed of football this place – the games are played in a great atmosphere and to get four goals away from home and a win up here is as
good as it gets.

"It was a great performance from us against Sunderland, but I actually
thought we played better up here beating Newcastle United earlier in the season than we did in this game.

"In the end though, all that matters is the three points and we're delighted to have come to Sunderland and got them."

Megson felt that finally finding goals to go with decent performances
has proven to be the key to Bolton's impressive form of late.

"I don't think there's any massive upturn in our displays from earlier in the season," he sniffed. "It's just that we're scoring goals right now. Our performances are not that much different from when we were struggling.

"But when we score goals, all the other things come to the fore and people start recognising that there are other aspects to our game."