Recently-appointed Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill has hailed a "dream" start to his Black Cats career after his first match in charge resulted in a 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers.

A late second-half free kick from Seb Larsson secured a crucial three points that lifted Sunderland away from the relegation zone.

"You could sense the confidence coming back into the team and to get the winner right at the end was just a dream," O'Neill said.

"The crowd were fantastic, they kept with us. The players were very determined today and it can be hard when you are playing here and wanting to please people.

"At some point a couple of things will go wrong and you will get that feeling of frustration and anger. But today it was great."

Sunderland are now 16th in the Premier League with 14 points from 15 games.