English League Championship/ Sunderland 4 Southend Utd 0:It is a measure of Roy Keane's impact that Wearside is awash with talk of automatic promotion.

A route back to the Premiership via the play-offs has been politely declined - a top-two finish is the sole objective of a side transformed under the former Manchester United captain.

"It is in everyone's mind that we get straight back to the Premiership," said Carlos Edwards, a £1.4 million signing from Luton last month. "That's the only thing the manager has instilled in us. He's not looking to next year - this year he wants to be promoted and that's our mentality. The gaffer won't accept us playing for sixth or seventh or settle for a play-off spot."

It is worth remembering Sunderland's appearance in the top six for the first time this season, on goal difference, came courtesy of Saturday's win over a team embedded in the relegation zone since September 30th. But defeat by the same opponents at Roots Hall in August saw Sunderland bottom of the table without a point after four games.

Following his appointment on August 28th, a little over two months after retiring as a player, Keane started with three straight victories. Sunderland's current run sees them top of the form table with six wins from seven.

"We haven't turned anything around yet. We've just got away from the bottom of the table," Keane added, before dropping his guard. "If the players didn't have the ability to challenge for promotion, they wouldn't be here."

The true test of their challenge will come over the next fortnight when they face the top three - Birmingham away tomorrow , Derby at home on Saturday and West Bromwich away a week later.

"They will be coming to the Stadium of Light shaking after today's performance," Edwards said. "Derby are not going to be too keen and Birmingham won't be counting their chickens. I think we're going to go there and come away with three points."

Such confidence could easily be considered misplaced but Sunderland are matching words with actions. Southend had lost only twice in 11 games, winning at Birmingham and Cardiff and seeing off West Brom and Southampton at home in that sequence. Here they were made to look feeble.

"You couldn't point fingers at any player after that performance," said Edwards, who raced clear on the right and squared for David Connolly to tap home the opener - his eighth goal in 11 league games.

Tobias Hysen effectively ended the contest when he rounded off a mazy run with an adroit finish. Stern John then opened his account for the club with two relatively simple goals within a minute. The Trinidadian came from Coventry last month and is another of the new arrivals.

Eight of the 15-man squad were Keane's signings, and last week he dismissed the chief scout Bob Shaw and director of scouting Bobby Saxton, relics from Mick McCarthy's reign, to "bring in one or two of my own people".

Here the home fans were left singing "Niall Quinn's Disco Pants" long into the night. The song had peaked at number 56 in the UK singles chart in April 1999 and that season they gained automatic promotion to the elite by finishing top of the old First Division. Encore, anyone?

• Guardian Service

SUNDERLAND: Fulop, Simpson, Nosworthy, Evans, Collins, Edwards, Whitehead (Leadbitter 82), Liam Miller, Hysen (Stokes 72), Connolly (Wallace 71), John. Subs not used: Ward, Yorke. Booked: Whitehead. Goals: Connolly 4, Hysen 13, John 77, 78.

SOUTHEND UTD: Flahavan, Hunt, Clarke, Sodje, Hammell, Gower (Foran 68), McCormack (Moussa 68), Maher, Campbell-Ryce, Bradbury (Harrold 69), Eastwood. Subs not used: Francis, Collis. Booked: Clarke, Maher, McCormack.

Referee: N Swarbrick(Lancashire).