SUNDERLAND midfielder George Honeyman says new boss Chris Coleman has wasted no time in knocking his new team into shape.

The former Wales boss guided the Black Cats to a 2-0 victory over Burton Albion in only his second match in charge of the club, with Honeyman securing the win with the second goal of the game in the 88th minute.

It was the 23-year-old’s third Championship goal of the season, but the first time one of his strikes has helped the club take all three points.

And the midfielder says Coleman is already making progress with the team, despite having only taken over from former boss Simon Grayson a week ago.

“For such little time, he’s had a big impact,” said Honeyman. “Before Villa, he did a 20-minute session and we had a shape, a way we wanted to play.

“I think everyone’s really looking forward to working with him, you can see why he did such a good job as the Wales manager.

“As the gaffer keeps saying, we’ve got to keep focusing on the performance and the results will come. Don’t get bogged down too much thinking you’ve got to win this, just play well, keep it tight and we will win games. It’s obvious we want to win, it’s about how you achieve that.

“From a personal point of view, I’ve always said I just want to stay in the team so I’ve got to do all I can to do that. When you win and you contribute with a goal, hopefully it’s enough to stay in it. I just want to play games for Sunderland.

“He’s given me little pointers to my game already and it’s nice to have little things to work on and I’m thinking about my game a lot more at the minute.

“It’s not massive things, it’s just little pointers and it seems to be working so far. Long may it continue.”

Sunderland faced a stern test at Burton where they faced both Nigel Cough’s committed side and atrocious weather conditions.

They were made to wait until the 84th minute for James Vaughan’s breakthrough goal, and then Honeyman made the game safe to earn a first win in 17 league games.

“It’s just a massive relief,” he said. “All the lads in the dressing room were saying how much we’d missed this feeling. We’ll enjoy it for now, then go again on Saturday (against Reading) and try to get another one because it’s the feeling in football, winning. Our away end at the end there - it doesn’t get better than that.

“That’s what keeping it tight at the back does. As a team we defended well and it gave us a platform to build on. We know we can score goals and hurt the opposition so we know if we can keep it tight at that end we’ve always got a chance.

“It’s why you play football. You don’t play professional football if you don’t like winning. Everyone says if you could bottle it, it’s the best feeling in the world. This has got to make us think we want more of it so next weekend let’s try and do it again.”