Sam Allardyce fired an ominous warning to Norwich City after Sunderland breathed new life into their own Premier League survival push.

The experienced Black Cats' boss is convinced beating the Canaries in their own backyard could be the catalyst to stay up after triumphing in a Carrow Road hothouse.

'It gives us a lot more hope,' he said. 'Dealing with the pressure paid off, coping with the pressure of the position we are in and playing away from home. We coped with it better than them and our clinical finishing at the right time has put the game to bed. Our defending was superb, everything was right for us.

'We have played better than that but the most important thing was the result. To get a 3-0 victory is a massive result and massive performance from the lads. The goal difference could be a factor, with only five games to go. If we are sat here now and somebody said you'd stay up on goal difference I would take that. We will of course look to get as many points as possible from the next five games. We should get a lot of confidence from this heading into Arsenal next.'

Allardyce's charges responded to his pre-match clarion call.

'Norwich is immediately above us and we've closed that big gap to just a point with a game in hand for us. That underlines the size of this result,' he said. 'That all-important clean sheet was a key element in our victory. We defended hard, with plenty of long balls into the box which we coped with well.

'A clean sheet was the first thing I asked for, from now until the end of the season. That will keep us up.

'We played some nice attacking football with quality goals at the end of it, and we could have had a couple more with our chances in the second-half. We scored three and the three frontmen scored, which is nice.'

England Under-21 starlet Duncan Watmore marked his return from a two-month ankle injury lay-off with a vibrant cameo capped by a stoppage time goal.

'I call him the 'roadrunner' and Duncan coming back gives us an alternative,' said Allardyce. 'Counter-attacking football suits him. Having been out so long, the composure he showed was brilliant. He'd only trained with us for four days and I am pleased to see him back and scoring. Jermain Defoe's goal came at just the right time at the start of the second-half as well. It's a fantastic 3-0 win for us. This is hopefully going to spur us on to more victories, because we need them to get safe.'