Sunderland's performance against QPR was the club's most impressive so far this season, fighting back from a goal down to ensure they progressed in the EFL Cup. Sandro's goal had granted the London club the lead until Paddy McNair's ten-minute brace gave Sunderland the victory.

Hard-fought, well-deserved

The Championship side proved to be tough opposition and certainly made the victory hard-work for the Black Cats, but McNair claimed that the side "knew it was going to be a tough game".

The two goals were McNair's first as a professional and the Northern Irish midfielder told the Sunderland Echo he was "delighted" with his first goals after claiming that "a lot of people have said I am a good finisher".

McNair claimed he had been "unlucky" due to suffering an injury which meant he did not really "have a pre-season" and he has been focusing on getting his "fitness up". The versatile youngster stated that he has been doing "a lot of extra work" on his fitness which he felt "showed against QPR".

Taking form into the league

Following on from Sunderland's victory, McNair urged his teammates to take the form displayed in the cup into the Premier League. "Hopefully now we can build on this win and get some momentum going into Saturday and the important home games coming up," he told the Echo.

McNair believes that "it is really coming together" and he felt that they "moved the ball around really well" especially in the second half when Sunderland began taking control of the game.

The victory was "just what we needed", according to McNair and after being drawn against Southampton his confidence continued as he believes it is a winnable game, but it didn't "matter who" they were drawn against as McNair believes "you won't go through the cup and not face a good team".

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About the author
Matthew Wilkinson
Huddersfield University in Sports Journalism. Twitter- MC_Wilkinson1