Sunderland have jumped to eighth on the table courtesy of a 3-1 victory over QPR at the Stadium of Light.
Arsenal loanee Nicklas Bendtner headed the Black Cats ahead four minutes prior to half-time when he got on the end of James McClean's cross to the far post.
Twenty minutes from time, McClean turned scorer when he was able to hammer home after his initial effort was blocked by Luke Young before the returning Stephane Sessegnon slid home David Vaughan's low cross to wrap up proceedings in the 76th minute.
QPR managed to get one back when left-back Taye Taiwo opened his Premier League scoring account with a sublime finish from a dead ball situation but there was not late finish aka the 2-1 home win over Liverpool on Wednesday.
It was a massive fall from grace for Mark Hughes' side who fell back into the drop zone after the midweek victory whilst Martin O'Neill guided his charges to just their second win in their past six outings.
Sunderland: 3 (Nicklas Bendtner 41', James McClean 70', Stephane Sssegnon 76') Queens Park Rangers: 1 (Taye Taiwo 79')
Stadium of Light, Sunderland
Yellow card:SUN - Sotirios Kyrgiakos 34', Wayne Bridge 45+3' QPR - Samba Diakite 11', Luke Young 20', Bobby Zamora 34'
