These are the key areas Sunderland can exploit against Bolton Wanderers on Boxing Day

Manager Keith Hill was delighted to see his bottom-of-the-league side secure a big win over their rivals but wants to see further improvements from his Bolton side ahead of the festive clash at the Stadium of Light.

Reflecting on the win over Southend and what needs to improve against Sunderland, Hill told the Bolton News: “Game management can improve.

“The amount of free kicks we gave away has got to improve.

“Conceding from set plays has got to improve. If we’d done that we’d have won comfortably.

“When we’re 3-1 up going into the last 20 minutes of the game I want to see us control the game, making sure it’s 3-1, potentially 4-1, instead of a potential heartbreak.

“It’s exciting and most of the games we’ve played here have been exciting. I won’t complain because we’ve got the three points. We still have a lot of games to play.”

He added: “I am exhausted, to be honest! There was a lot of emotion on the touchline, as much as you could go through in a game.

“There was a lot of expectation to beat Southend but the people who expect us to beat them don’t actually look at Southend and the squad of players they have got, they look at ‘Bolton should be beating Southend’.

“We have done that but we knew it would be a difficult game looking at their player roster."