IT might have been one of their most incisive performances of the season, but Grant Leadbitter has warned his Sunderland team-mates they cannot afford a repeat of the profligacy that blighted Tuesday night's impressive 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers.

While the Black Cats were significantly superior to their hosts at Loftus Road, they were still forced to survive a fraught finale after spurning a succession of gilt-edged chances throughout the game.

Despite doubling Sunderland's lead on the stroke of half-time, Leadbitter is honest enough to accept that he was one of the worst culprits in West London, with his failure to convert a sixth-minute clean run on goal setting the tone for subsequent misses from the likes of Ross Wallace and David Connolly.

On Tuesday, the lack of success in front of goal didn't matter. On another day, though, and against superior opposition, a repeat showing could cost Sunderland dear.

"We created an awful lot of chances as a team but we didn't really put enough of them away," said Leadbitter, who has scored two goals in 19 Championship appearances this term.

"We could quite easily have been four or five goals ahead but then, in the final minutes, they had a chance to make it 2-2.

"I have to hold my hand up as a part of that. I'm delighted to have scored my goal but, to be honest, I'm disappointed that I didn't finish the match with a hat-trick.

"I had two other opportunities to score and I know they're the type of chances I need to be taking in the future.

"We all have to learn from that. If we're as dominant again, we shouldn't be leaving ourselves in a position where we're hanging on a bit at the end. We need to be putting sides to bed if the chances are coming our way."

Tuesday's win took Sunderland to 14th in the Championship table - a position they are yet to better this season - and extended their current unbeaten run to four games.

A lack of consistency has been the Black Cats Achilles' heel this term but Leadbitter hopes that with back-to-back home games coming up, a concerted play-off push is in the offing.

"We've got ourselves on a good little run now," said the midfielder. "The result at Wolves (Sunderland drew 1-1) was an important one because we could quite easily have lost that game. We didn't, and it's results like that that will take you up the table.

"We've done well in two away games in a row now, so it's important we don't waste that by not doing the business at home against Norwich this weekend."

For Leadbitter personally, merely being involved in Sunderland's surge up the table is cause enough for celebration.

Earlier in the summer, the 20-year-old looked to be on his way out of the Stadium of Light after a bout of contractual wrangling ended in him submitting a formal transfer request.

The situation was quickly resolved, but the Sunderland-born schemer still found himself left out of the starting XI for Roy Keane's first four games as manager.

He is back in the side now, though, and after starting the last three games ahead of the likes of Dean Whitehead and Graham Kavanagh, looks to have established himself at the forefront of Keane's thinking.

"I'm delighted with the way things are going for me," added Leadbitter. "I'm really enjoying playing and training under new management. I'm still young and I'm still learning, so the most important thing at the moment is that I'm in there getting games. The challenge now is to keep producing good performances."