TWO wins in a row and three clean sheets from an opening run of six matches have secured nine points to lift Sunderland out of the Premier League’s bottom three for the first time this season.

Whatever other clubs’ fans have felt about Sam Allardyce’s way of doing things, he has not taken long to get the Black Cats support onside by proving that a squad seemingly destined for the Championship under Dick Advocaat can actually play a bit.

The relief inside the Stadium of Light was clear when Duncan Watmore raced through to put Sunderland two goals clear with six minutes remaining against Stoke City because it was job done – and now the challenge is to continue the march during a gruelling run of five games.

But the mere fact Sunderland suddenly look solid and capable of earning decent results highlights the progress Allardyce has already made since taking over in mid-October. Suddenly the criticism which followed every performance before his arrival has turned to praise.

The turnaround is based on making Sunderland defensively resilient and sound, with two of the early season flops, Younes Kaboul and Sebastian Coates, showing the sort of form which persuaded Liverpool and Tottenham to pay sizeable fees for them.

It is not just those two players to have shown improvements, with Patrick van Aanholt an important factor in the victory over Stoke.

The Dutchman turned in one of his best performances in a defensive sense to keep Xherdan Shaqiri quiet, while also impressing in the opposite direction like he has occasionally since arriving from Chelsea 18 months ago.

Van Aanholt was initially perceived as a weak link at the back by Allardyce, which prompted him to be left out. The 25-year-old has now helped keep two successive clean sheets in a row – and the first Premier League goal of his career has made his return to form even sweeter.

“Everyone can criticise me. I don't listen to them,” said van Aanholt. “I know what I am capable of. Of course every player has to accept criticism and it has happened to me. But you have got to get back up. I have trained really hard and I am back up. I am not even worried about the critics.

“It feels fantastic to score my first goal. It is always nice to score and win the game. I am very happy. It gives us a boost that we are out of the relegation zone. There is not as much pressure on us as there was before. We have just got to move on and focus on Arsenal.”

With the scoreline goalless and Stoke reduced to ten men from the 47th minute onwards because of a debatable second yellow card for Ryan Shawcross, Sunderland had to find something extra going forward to get the job done.

Few inside the Stadium of Light could have imagined the source of the opening goal would be van Aanholt. He drilled a low first time shot from 22 yards inside Jack Butland’s bottom left corner after Adam Johnson had rolled a free-kick directly into his path.

Allardyce said: “It’s not difficult to see Patrick’s qualities, it’s just using them in the right areas at the right time. It’s your decision-making process, and I have to get everybody’s decision-making process better, which has been about cutting out these mistakes.

“I’m not particularly talking about Patrick now but I’ve got players who’ve made a lot of mistakes, and we had to cut that out, and stop that easy option for the opposition to score against us, which is what we were doing. You could call us a soft touch if you like.

“Patrick’s got a lot of ability, and if he uses it in the right areas like he did here then he stays in the team. Not only has he done the defensive side well, he’s also got down the left-hand side to try to create as much as he can, and then he’s scored a very, very good goal as well.”

The worthiness of the red card issued to Shawcross could be debated either way. He had deserved his first caution for tripping Steven Fletcher before the break, but one replay angle suggested he had touched the ball before felling Watmore. Referee Mike Dean sent him off and Sunderland eventually made the extra man count.

Mark Hughes, the Stoke boss, said: “We asked Ryan as he came off ‘did he get the ball?’ and he said he got a touch. There was a coming together. A key decision like that affects the game, changes the whole complexion.”

Allardyce is a firm believer in keeping things tight at the back to get rewards and his methods have been vindicated so far, with three clean sheets resulting in three wins over Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Stoke.

Costel Pantilimon, the Sunderland goalkeeper, made one outstanding point-blank save to thwart Jonathan Walters after half an hour, but otherwise he was pretty quiet because of the strong defending of those in front of him.

After Shawcross’ dismissal it was a matter of breaking down Stoke’s well-organised defence and eventually, after Butland had made a flying one-handed save to deny Coates’ header hitting the top corner, van Aanholt and Watmore did the damage.

Sunderland moved out of the bottom three, although with three away trips to Arsenal, Manchester City and Arsenal to come in December, Allardyce and his players know there is no room for complacency after a couple of victories.

“Nothing has really changed. We have just got a new manager,” said van Aanholt. “He has brought in loads of experience and has changed us. It is a different way of training and playing and different meetings. That has helped us.

“He kept telling us the moment will come for us. The moment came on Monday when we got three points. We got three points again and that is six points in a week.

“We are looking from game to game. If we play like we did against Stoke I think we can beat anyone. To be fair we have not even looked at the fixtures. We have just chilled. We are looking from game to game and next week is Arsenal … another goal would be nice!”