A comfortable victory in the Capital One Cup left Martin O’Neill in good spirits as he gathered his thoughts for the post-match e-mail sent exclusively to Salut! Sunderland (and a few thousand others) …
Dear Colin,
I’m delighted. I thought we played some really lovely football, particularly in the first half.
Morecambe played very well. They came here and tried not play – not only that, they were competitive throughout the night.
I was really glad we got that second goal to take any anxious moments away. I’m just delighted we’ve won.
James scored two well-taken goals – he did brilliantly for the first from the whipped-in corner.

The second goal was excellent, too. Perhaps James was thinking he might stay on to score his hat-trick, but he had been booked and I didn’t want to lose him for Saturday.
We’re in the hat for the next round, and that’s important. We came through with flying colours, I think.
There were one or two anxious moments where we were a little sloppy, but overall it was very pleasing.
All the best,
Martin O’Neill
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A win for us in this competition is a good result at any time irrespective of who the opposition might be. This is “a cup run” for us to be in the hat for the next round.