Blackburn Rovers boss explains the key to his side's emphatic win over Sunderland and what they got right

Blackburn Rovers boss John Eustace said his side got their rewards for coming through Sunderland's strong start and executing their game plan on Monday afternoon.

Rovers had come into the contest winless in nine but ran out 5-1 winners with an excellent counterattacking performance against a dismal Black Cats side. Eustace said he and his players had prepared for a strong start from Sunderland and knew that there would be space on the break to exploit thereafter.

“We’ve continued the good work that we’ve been showing over the last couple of weeks," Eustace said.

"We were very clinical, which is what we’ve been asking for, and the all-round display from the team today was very good.

“Sunderland start very strong at home, we know that, and we had to roll our sleeves up to make sure we defended the box with our lives, which we did. The lads have been doing that since I came here, particularly in training over the international break. You can see that coming out in games.

“We knew we’d have time and space to play, but we knew we could be a threat on the transition and that there’d be lots of space to hurt them. I’m very pleased we managed to do that," he added.

“The lads deserve full credit. The way they’ve worked, the way they’ve conducted themselves and taken every message on board, it’s been frustrating for me when they’ve not got the results they’ve deserved. Today, the result was spot on and it comes from all the hard work that the players have been putting in.”

The win lifted Rovers five points clear of the bottom three.