Stoke City boss Alex Neil reacts to 'shots' from Sunderland fans after sealing much-needed win

First Potters league goals for Ryan Mmaee and Luke McNally either side of Jack Clarke’s leveller secured a first home win since August to help Stoke open up a five-point gap above the relegation zone.

Neil, who left Sunderland last year to take over at Stoke, said: “I am really pleased. We needed the win, irrespective of who we were playing against.

“The [Sunderland] fans were always going to fire a few shots at me, which is fine and I get it.

“But for our lads, the club and our supporters, we needed a bit of optimism, a good performance and certainly three points under our belt.”

Mmaee opened the scoring inside seven minutes but Championship top scorer Clarke equalised for high-flying Sunderland moments later.

The hosts regained the lead shortly after the interval when McNally headed home a deep Daniel Johnson corner.

And, despite a late Black Cats onslaught, Stoke held on to earn only their fourth league win of the campaign.

Neil added: “We’re a team very much in transition and that’s frustrating because the nature of the Championship is you need to win games.

“I think the fans understand where we are as a club; you want your club to win games and you want to be successful and push on up the league.

“But I think we need to recognise where we currently are and that we do have great potential.

“Naturally Sunderland piled pressure on at the end and they’re the best games to win when you really need to dig in, so it’s really satisfying.

“At the end of the day, the proof’s in the pudding and you need to do it on the pitch, but I thought against a really good side, we more than matched them.

“We’ve got some tough games coming up so today was a good day for us.”