Every word from Michael Beale following Sunderland's 3-1 win over Plymouth Argyle.

Cliché but probably a game of two halves?

Well we only played in one half if I'm honest. I thought we started the game well but we really fell away. There was too many individual errors. We went really bold in attacking with the line-up. It certainly, in terms of our cohesion early in the game, I wasn't pleased with our pressing. The team wasn't and we had some honest words at half-time. We got out early for the second-half.

I thought the moment the second-half started we were much, much better. We scored three excellent goals. I thought all four goals were good weren't they? Our three, I'm absolutely delighted with. We're mixing around the goal scorers now. That's the second home game we've scored three goals, six in the last two home games. Huge positive for us.

You could visibly see Plymouth tiring when you got back into the game?

Yeah. I think we went and pressed - Trai Hume jumps out of his slot to go and press and the fans get with that. Naz ran tirelessly in the game and didn't get any reward for it other than the team winning. He didn't get any personal reward for it but I thought he was fantastic.

Listen, the goals that we scored, all three were special goals. They're big moments. In that 15 minute spell, we looked a really good team. Incredible how we can be in the first-half, how good we were in the second-half. I suppose that's what it's like managing a young team at times. I just said to them there, it's a really important win because you see where it's taken us in the league tonight.

Pierre set the tone with that free-kick, it surprised Plymouth?

Yeah, set plays have been our nemesis in the last few big games. It was nice for us to actually score off one today and the boys worked it cleverly today. They just shifted the ball and it's a great finish. I thought Jack's strike was fantastic. The power he generates on the strike and Jobe's wasn't bad either.

Taking Jobe out today, he seemed to have that extra bounce in his step. A bold move to do that?

We spoke about it on Thursday. We spoke about this week, three really big games. We've got a lot of travelling to do, down to Huddersfield and back, then down to Birmingham. Pierre was pre-planned [substitution]. You can't plan it 100 per cent but it was pre-planned that the midfield would rotate a little bit this week.

We'd play with one more up the pitch, certainly at home. Abdoullah deserved to stay in the team and I think Paddy has shown what we've missed in moments. That dribbling ability. There's so many positives at the moment. Young Rigg coming on as well.

Can I quickly ask about the fifth minute applause, your sister has put a post on social media, thanking all the supporters and it's clearly meant a huge amount?

Yeah it's hard to speak about it. Just thank you to be honest. It's hard to talk about it.

Is it a nice thing for you that talking about the game, you got three points, three good goals and there's still things to work on?

Yeah, we're a young team and we always want to get better. It doesn't matter what level we play at, we always want to strive for a better performance. I think first-half, there wasn't many in a Sunderland shirt that were doing themselves justice. We spoke about that, when we're at home we want to excite our fans. We want to play front foot football, we want to run, we want people to be expressing themselves and we weren't doing that first-half.

There was too many individual errors from everyone ad you could have made five subs. I told them, I thought it was the right team before the game but they have to put it right. I said to them it was going to be massive. We didn't want the regret. We had to beat Plymouth in the second-half. A 45 minute game just go and beat them. We're at home and I'd expect us to show more.

What we're doing in training, I can see a team play at a really good level but I can't see it in front of you guys and just use those words. The boys have to go and put in a performance and second-half I thought they were fantastic. We've got to stay at that level now haven't we?

You said you'd see how you felt after those three games, but you're smiling?

Listen, it's a club that means so much to people so there's a lot of responsibility in the staff and the players. It's a serious business that we're in and where we are in the league, every game is so important so it's nice driving home tonight knowing the fans are pleased with what they saw. We scored three excellent goals and it's a big win. There's nothing not to be happy about tonight.

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Being sixth, does it mean something to be in the play-off spots?

Certainly confidence wise it does. We're going to go to a team that's fighting for its life on Wednesday so the points are going to be really important for them. We don't start 1-0 up or 1-0 down. We reset and must play every single game, every minute of the game with the right mentality and quality. We have to be positive. That's what we spoke about at half-time.

Too many backwards passes, too slow, one too many touches. That's not how we want to play football and it's important that we reset and we play well. Better than today, away at Huddersfield. We can only do our job. If we hadn't done our job today and seen the results in the league, we would have really regretted it.