Two-goal hero Jack Clarke says Sunderland are building momentum after their win at QPR lifted them into the Championship play-off places. The Black Cats won 3-0 at Loftus Road, with Luke O'Nien scoring the opening goal and Anthony Patterson saving a penalty from Ilias Chair to preserve that one-goal lead before Clarke's late strikes, to climb to fifth in the table.
It also completed back-to-back wins for the Wearsiders, following Saturday's home victory against Reading, and Tony Mowbray's men have now lost just one of their last nine league games as they prepare for this weekend's clash with Bristol City at the Stadium of Light.
"It feels like there is some momentum building but we are just taking each game as it comes at the moment, and try to pick up as many points as we can," said Clarke.
"We've got two wins in a row now and we'd like to keep pushing forward and take it into Saturday. They're all big games at the moment, especially as we try to achieve what we set out to achieve at the start of the season, and we need to keep on picking up as many points as possible.
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"We know Bristol is not going to be an easy game but we'll recover, rest, and be ready to go again on Saturday."
Of the win at QPR, Clarke added: "Obviously the result speaks for itself, but I thought we dug in really deep. We had a few spells in the game where they were on top of us but the boys were brilliant, especially the back four and Patto [Patterson] for keeping us in the game.
"Then, when the chances came, I managed to put them away. As the game wore on, we knew the opportunities were going to come because they were chasing the game and that left more space for us to get into and we could probably have got a couple more goals by the end, but we'll take the three points and move on.
"They [QPR] had good spells in the game and at the start of the second half they really got on top of us. I'm not sure if was a penalty - I haven't seen it back or anything like that - but that [save] was what we've come to expect from Patto.
"We've got full faith in him, he was phenomenal last night and he's been phenomenal all season."
Former Spurs man Clarke has spent the majority of the season playing wide on the left but he operated up front alongside Joe Gelhardt as Mowbray switched to a 4-4-2 shape. It is not the first time that Clarke has been used in a more central role, and he admits he is still learning.
The 20-year-old said: "I think that as the season has gone on, I have adapted to playing there. As we know, we've had a lot of games this season where we've not had a natural number nine or whatever so we've all had to adapt to playing in different positions.
"I'm still learning to play in that position - I'm learning as I'm going - but I was asked to play there and I did my best, and luckily got into the right areas twice. But as long as I'm playing, I'm always going to enjoy it.
"You have to be a bit more patient up there, you get a lot less of the ball, less opportunities, but you have to do your best for the team when the ball comes to you and hopefully score the goals like I did last night."
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