Sunderland fell to a 5-0 defeat against Nottingham Forest on Friday night

Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira said his team were rewarded for their positive approach after securing a 5-0 win against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Pereira saw his side take a major step towards Premier League safety with a brilliant first-half performance, in which his aggressive approach was vindicated with four goals. Pereira was thrilled with his players but added that he was equally pleased that they had managed to keep a clean sheet over the course of 90 minutes.

Pereira said: “I said to them to win in this stadium against Sunderland, they are 10 points above us, it means that we need to play in our best level and in my opinion the first half was full, tactically, mentally, pressing, creating a lot of problems in set plays, scoring goals, not conceding nothing.

“And the second half, start with yellow cards and yellow cards and yellow cards, start with some problems, injury problems and in the end it's about to be compact, about to defend and to finish the game with one more goal and we scored, we didn't concede a goal and kept a clean sheet. Very important in this moment for us.”

The Nottingham Forest boss added that he had arrived on Wearside determined to take an attacking approach.

He said: “You know, it's difficult to imagine 5-0, it's difficult to imagine to come here but to be honest, to be completely honest with you, in my mind, I never thought, in my thoughts, I never, we didn't come here to draw the game, we came here to get the three points because we need more than them.

“If we need more than them we need to prove inside the pitch that we deserve the three points and we did everything, I think we did everything. I think we did ourselves a fantastic save in the middle of the second half, keep the goal without zero, clean sheet and because I feel proud, not about the way that, not about because we scored five goals but because we didn't concede any goals.”

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Pereira said that he had given his players two days off after the victory, and that he would pay no attention to Saturday’s Premier League games.

“For sure I will not watch the games because I suffer with my games, that's enough,” he said.

“That's enough because you know, maybe I will be at home drinking a pint but not watching the games because this is the worst that we can do. It’s in our hands, we must just focus in our life to fight, to keep the distance and to win games, not to every time that they win a game or every time that they score a goal it's like, it's like we lost something, no, we don't lose anything because we cannot control the result.

“We just can control what we do every time when we go inside the pitch, this is what we can control. What we can give in 90 minutes or in 100 minutes to save the club, to put the club in the Premier League next season and to win games. That's why I say, I say every time it's not about the other teams, it's not about the other clubs, it's about us, about us, only about us.”

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