Sunderland were able to celebrate a league win at the Stadium of Light for the first time in more than eight months as Mick McCarthy finally got a little respite with a 2-0 win over Watford.
Saturday's 2-0 victory at Preston had finally ended the club's barren run and thankfully denied them a share of Darwen's 104-year-old record of 18 successive defeats.
However, they returned to Wearside knowing that they had still to address a run of 11 league games without a win on their own patch and only too well aware that they had not recorded successive victories in either the Premiership or Division One since December 2001.
But Marcus Stewart's 39th-minute penalty and a superbly crafted second courtesy of full-back Stephen Wright on 67 minutes handed them three points for the second time this weekend, and the club's long-suffering fans could hardly contain their delight.
Elsewhere in the first division, Burnley lifted themselves off the bottom with a 3-0 win at Gillingham while West Brom defeated Preston 1-0. Earlier, Reading and Rotherham played out a scoreless draw.