John O'Shea says Sunderland were rewarded for keeping faith in their game as their season exploded into life with a 4-0 win over Stoke City on Wearside yesterday. The former Manchester United defender had a home debut to remember as he captained Sunderland to a resounding win at the Stadium of Light. Titus Bramble, Craig Gardner and Sebastian Larsson all scored, while Jonathan Woodgate headed a Larsson cross into his own net as Stoke slipped to their first defeat of the season. And O'Shea says the squad kept their self-belief all along after drawing two and losing two of their opening four league games. "It was the perfect game," he said. "We spoke before the game about attitude and how to approach Stoke, who'd had a fantastic start to the season. "We know the ability in the team - the manager is putting together a good squad here. We played some fantastic football and scored some great goals. "We have faith in what the manager and the coaches were telling us. We just have to be brave and bold on the pitch and we did that today." He said: "Scoring the goals gives the team a lot of confidence. The early goal helped us massively - Stoke have been away to Kiev and I know from playing in Europe that you can be sluggish in that first 20 minutes. "We had to get the crowd up as well and once we got that first goal there was no looking back." Glowing endorsements from a man who has won it all.
