'Really like' - Swansea City boss delivered this verdict on Sunderland after narrow win

Martin's side were dominant in the opening stages and took a 2-0 lead into half time thanks to goals from Ollie Cooper and Harry Darling.

Jack Clarke got Sunderland back into the contest shortly after the interval and though the visitors looked for the most part the stronger side from there on in, only a couple of excellent saves from Anthony Patterson prevented Swansea from adding to their tally.

The win lifted Swansea to within striking distance of the top of the table but Martin admitted it was at times a difficult afternoon and was fulsome in his praise of Sunderland.

"If anyone had said at the start of the week that we'd get nine points, we'd probably be the only people who would believe we'd be capable of that," he said.

"They've shown immense courage and energy. The last two games certainly showed today in the second-half. We started the game with brilliant energy and were so aggressive. We looked a threat. Maybe we could have scored one or two more, their keeper made a couple of brilliant saves.

"But we just couldn't sustain that energy, it started creeping in in the last 15 minutes of the first-half. They [Sunderland] played on Tuesday, it's very different. We got back to the stadium here on Thursday morning at half three, it's not easy. That showed, for sure.

"The second-half was a bit more painful and I don't think we're overly satisfied with the performance, apart from the first half an hour. I still thought we had some brilliant moments in the second-half when Olivier [Ntcham] came on and we changed Joel's [Piroe] position a bit.

"Their goalkeeper has made more saves than Steven [Benda]. They're a really good team by the way. I really like them, Sunderland. They'll cause a lot of teams problems this year with the energy they have.

"The lads showed huge resilience, togetherness, determination and desire to protect what we had. We've won four games in a row in this league, and after the start we had to the season, that's no mean feat."