Alex Neil hailed his Sunderland players, who ‘rose to the physical challenge’ of travelling to Sky Bet League One high-flyers Wigan and came away with a 3-0 victory.

Bailey Wright gave the Black Cats the perfect start when he nodded home Alex Pritchard’s free-kick inside two minutes.

And a brace of penalties from Ross Stewart – one in either half – gave the visitors a commanding victory margin, to kick-start their own play-off push.

“We need to prove to ourselves, and to everyone else, that we can stand up to these physical challenges,” Neil said.

“Even at half-time, then it was, ‘now you’ve done it for 45, have you got the steel to deliver in the second half?’

“I think players like challenges like that. The players rose their game to match that.

“It’s not been easy, and even today we lost two centre-backs. There’s always been a lot of challenges from day one, but it’s really nice to come away from home against a good team, keep a clean sheet and send the fans home happy.

“They were terrific, backed us right through the match, and that was a really nice feeling at the end.

“We deployed a different strategy today, because they are very good at turning it down the sides and we needed to stop crosses into the box. We did that, in the main.

“We knew then that we would always be a threat in transition. I’m really pleased because everything we worked on this week, they’ve carried out to a tee.”

For Wigan boss Leam Richardson, it was a bad day at the office as his side suffered their first home defeat since last October.

“You’ve got to be respectful of other teams at all times, especially when they play well,” said the Wigan manager.

“They’ve obviously got off to a fantastic start, going ahead inside two minutes, which is disappointing.

“It’s not a goal we usually concede, that type of goal, and it gave them the perfect start.

“I thought we came back into it well, I thought we took over the game for around half an hour.

“But the second goal, from a penalty, from our possession, is so disappointing.

“From then on in, the game was a bit bitty, a bit scrappy, with the injuries and the bookings and the substitutes.

“But credit to Sunderland, they’ve come here to get the win, and they did.

“They’re full of good players, they’ve got a good manager, they’re a fantastic club.

“But as always, it’s about what we do, and it’s the first time since October that we’ve lost at home.

“That tells you how well the lads have been doing, and it’s all about consistency.

“We don’t get too high when we win, and we don’t get too low when we lose.”