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"We should have been out of sight in the first half, when we were wonderful," he said. "To be fair to Burnley, they never gave up and got a goal back which made it edgy, but overall I thought some of our football was terrific.
"It could have been five or six but we got sloppy. Tenth place is within our grasp, it's been a good day.
"There's been progress this season. Our home form has been fantastic but I have to analyse us away from home and try to change something, starting with the next couple of games. At home we have two attacking full backs and two wide players who can beat teams.
"For 80 minutes I was delighted. Of course, it wouldn't be Sunderland without conceding one, would it?"
Brian Laws was asked about the second goal after the game, after it had been confirmed that Fraizer Campbell should have been flagged offside.
"The second goal was a killer for us," said Laws. "Some may say he was only marginally offside, but offside is offside and we are not asking for any luck. We just want accuracy which gives you a fighting chance and if we had gone in just a goal down at half time then you have a chance.
"We showed the kind of fighting spirit in the second half we know we are capable of and the goal gave us extra belief. If we had scored a little but earlier it might have been interesting but we ran out of time in the end.
"The disappointing thing is that we never got going in the first half and Bent and Jones caused us too many problems. They pushed us so deep and we weren't coping well with them.
"We then tried to protect our defence and that meant we couldn't get anywhere near our strikers in support. It was a game of two halves and unfortunately the first one caused us the problem today."
Burnley had to go into the game without striker David Nugent and on that Laws added: "Losing David was a massive blow. He had a tight hamstring and when we tested him on Saturday morning it was just too tight.
"You know what they are like, in particular with quick players. They pop and you can be out for the season and with three big games to come that's the last thing we need, but he will be fit for next week.
"With three games to go we are still in there. Our chances are slim and it's going to take great belief. No matter how the other results went, we knew we had to win a minimum of two games and that's relying on the other teams around us not picking up points.
"Naturally they are going to pick up something, so we know what we have to do. I've said to the player there are nine points to play for and we have to go for it.
"We will do that and if we show the kind of spirit we did in the second half then the supporters will go away knowing we are not going to lie down. It doesn't matter if it's Liverpool, Birmingham or Tottenham, we have to give it a go."