LEE Johnson called tonight's performance a collective win for Sunderland as his side inflicted a hammering over Cheltenham Town at the Stadium of Light. 

The Black Cats put the sword to the away side with a 5-0 win with two goals from Ross Stewart along with contributions from Bailey Wright, Luke O'Nien and Leon Dajaku. 

The victory lifted them to the top of League One with ten wins from twelve in all competitions this season but this was the first game where Sunderland hammered their opponents and really showed their dominance. 

“I was really pleased today. Proud as punch of the players and the club" said Johnson.

“A lot of people put a lot of hard work into any performance and sometimes Ross Stewart might get the headlines but Joyce cooking the dinners is just as important and we know that.

“It’s a real collective win for us. I thought we were excellent.

“When you make changes, it’s important that the lads come in and do the business which they did and I just thought we were a threat all game. Anybody would have found it tough to play us today.

“Arguably we could have scored a couple more but for good block and good defending from Cheltenham players."

Johnson made five changes for the game and shuffled his team around with two forwards in Nathan Broadhead and Ross Stewart. The end result was five goals and performance that could have seen them put more in the back of the net. 

Johnson added: “They are so willing the pair of them. They’re fit and mobile.

“Cheltenham do play with a high line and we felt that’s something we could potentially capitalise on and we thought the ten would be a bit obsolete but two nines could really penetrate their back line.

“The boys have still got to execute and I thought there were passes in the first half we should have found more than we did over the top so we’ve still got loads to improve on.

“What you see is that little bit of cohesion come in and people understanding Dajaku when he makes those runs, Nathan Broadhead too.

“I’d have loved to have played as a midfielder tonight because of the penetration and the movement we had in behind.

“It’s really hard to defend that, I remember, I think it was my dad telling me, that Man United when they had Beckham, Giggs, Yorke and Cole made 97 sprints a game each on average. What that means is it’s so hard to defend against 400 sprints a game.

“They’ve only got to be five or ten yards or sometimes they are 30 yards but just that feeling of penetration on a back line just makes them drop and then the space is there for somebody to turn and you’ve got the runner through. A lot of stuff that we worked on come out tonight and obviously the players should take full credit for that."