Jack Ross on why Sunderland's demolition of Scunthorpe was 'pretty much perfect'

Sunderland ran out comfortable winners with Max Power, Josh Maja and Chris Maguire all on the scoresheet.

The Black Cats also recorded their first clean sheet in an utterly dominating showing.

Ross is not getting carried away with his side’s start to life in the third tier but he was delighted with the display.

Ross reflected: “I think the fact we scored three and created opportunities, and we’ve kept a clean sheet, it was pretty much perfect in that sense.

“As a manager and a staff, when you look at it, I think every player made a contribution in different ways.

“The one thing I keep going back to is that I’ve asked a lot of the players in terms of formation and changes in what we’re trying to do, but their understanding of it has been really good.

“Even more importantly, their desire to do it has been excellent. Playing the way we do with the ball, you have to be brave and work really hard. Because we will give it away at times and then we have to react.

“We’ve been really good at that. That’s been one of the really pleasing things and I believe we’ll get better. There’s been loads of encouraging signs, but it’s still really early.

“I think what we’ve seen so far is a group that are trying to do that and play in a manner with high energy levels, getting after teams and playing in a really expansive manner.

“It’s just a start for us. We’ve got some really tough games to come here, and there’s always a real intensity about the games because of how opposition teams view it.”

Sunderland are unbeaten three games in.

Ross added: “Given the transition the club has been through and the fact we’ve had a lot of injuries early on, we’ve spoken to the players about different targets.

“I think we’ll have to do that again because the squad is continually being refreshed.

“I’m pleased with it, but we’d obviously like to do better. I’d rather have won all three games, but I think we can be satisfied.

“We’re building confidence because undoubtedly that’s something that hasn’t been here for a couple of years.”