THE wait for a Sunderland win is over, it’s just arrived too late to help them in their fight to stay in the Premier League.

Full-back Billy Jones and leading scorer Jermain Defoe scored in the second half to increase the relegation worries on Hull City at the KCOM Stadium.

Here are four main talking points from only the second win for the Black Cats’ in 2017.

FUTURE TALK

David Moyes suggested he wasn’t going to pick a team purely with an eye on next season, even though he knows Sunderland will be in the Championship.

That was reflected in his selection. A look down the starting line-up only raised question marks about the summer, who will stay or go?

You could imagine goalscorer Billy Jones, back in the side, has a strong chance of being around, having played regularly under Moyes. Homegrown midfielder George Honeyman stands a chance too, although even he is out of contract.

Beyond those, who else? Didier Ndong has looked brighter in the last few months and is probably deserving at a crack at the Premier league again, if someone will offer somewhere close to his £16m price-tag.

But this was very much a side Moyes wanted to send out to see if they could actually win another game – and they did.

BY GEORGE, WHAT NEXT?

Will Honeyman be still at Sunderland in the Championship? You would certainly think so and Moyes could well have to turn to him and more youngsters next season.

This was only the 22-year-old’s second Premier League start and he was very willing, clearly keen to impress. One more appearance and he will trigger a new contract. His day might have been even better had his early header found the net.

Instead he had to make do with sending over the corner for John O’Shea, another whose contract is up, to flick on and Jones was on hand to convert with his head.

Honeyman had to go off injured late on, but he could be proud of his display as the No 10 behind Defoe. Plenty to learn, but a sense there's more to come.

TIGER CHARGE ENDS

Hull looked the more confident in the first half and understandably so given their recent revival. However, mainly because of Jordan Pickford’s brilliance which will only have increased his value, Sunderland were intent on making things as hard as they could and did so.

It might not have been the most impressive game in terms of entertainment, but Sunderland dug deep to deliver a result even though their ten-year stay in the top-flight is heading for an end.

The biggest surprise was that Sunderland, with just one win in 17 beforehand and winless in 11, ended up being the side that brought an end to Marco Silva’s incredible run of having not lost a home game since 2014 (a stretch of 41 games).

Hull had taken 19 points from 21 under him at the KCOM Stadium and yet it was Sunderland who brought that impressive record to an end. Football eh?

DOUBLE J 

Two of Sunderland’s prize assets this summer will be Jordan Pickford and Jermain Defoe. Nobody really expects the Black Cats to be able to keep hold of them either and this was a day when they showed why.

Defoe, who can leave for nothing following relegation, might not have been at his most potent, but still got himself into two fantastic positions before his stoppage-time goal.

He has at least ended the campaign by ending a drought of 1,035 minutes without scoring at club level by adding the 15th for the division’s bottom club.

Then there was Pickford. What more can be said about him at this stage? Premier League clubs are queuing up to bid for him, and it will be a question of where he ends up with Everton showing the greatest interest at this stage. He will not be cheap.

He pulled off two stunning saves, the first from Lazar Markovic’s header and the second was a near post instinctive stop to thwart Abel Hernandez, and more. 

Overall his distribution was excellent and his decision making sound. If only Sunderland could keep them both.

MANAGERIAL REACTION

David Moyes said: “I think I said the other week, the performances had been threatening results, we had played well. The players showed a great deal of pride in their performance as a team and individuals. We defended well.

“I had a joke with Jordan afterwards … I said ‘I don’t think any of those were difficult, they were normal for you’ I said ‘don’t start thinking you have done well!’ That gives you an impression of where Jordan is, I think he is a big talent I really do.

“He is under contract and that’s the big thing. Good players and English players have a premium. Wherever Jordan goes it would have to be a really big price. It would not be cheap if anybody wants Jordan Pickford.

Marco Silva said: “My home record is not important. What is important is the result. In my mind we knew Sunderland would not be an easy game, they came here to prove this.

“It is not a good moment for us. It finished nothing today. Even if we achieved a good result it would have been the same words. It changes nothing.

"We have to work hard for the next game. It is a moment to be calm. The players were not calm here, they tried to do everything too fats. If you are not calm it is impossible to play well.”