By Mandeep Sanghera BBC Sport Online

Howard Wilkinson has urged his Sunderland players to maintain the improvement which saw them beat Arsenal in the Worthington Cup on Wednesday.

The win was Wilkinson's first since taking over from Peter Reid, who was sacked after Sunderland were ironically beaten at Highbury last month.

But on Wednesday a young and inexperienced Black Cats side recovered from two goals down to beat a weakened Arsenal, who have now lost five of their last six games.

Kevin Kyle's header and a Marcus Stewart double secured Sunderland's comeback after they went behind to goals from Robert Pires and Francis Jeffers.

"Considering the amount of inexperience in the side they did very well," said Wilkinson.

"It helps the morale of those who played and, hopefully, their response is the type that the rest of the players will continue to show and have shown, particularly in our last two games."

Sunderland have led in both their last two outings before drawing against Bolton and Charlton.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said he was disappointed the club were out of a competition giving him the chance to test his younger players.

Van Bronckhorst return

But the Frenchman vigorously defended his side's recent record or results.

"In these five games there have been two Champions League games which have no impact at all and the Worthington Cup where we left 10 players out," he said.

Pires, who recently returned from a long spell out injured, was set up for his goal by Dutchman Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

Van Bronckhorst played the full match as he intensified his return after five months out with a similar cruciate knee injury to Pires.

Wenger added: "Pires is much sharper and Van Bronckhorst had a very good first half. He dropped a little bit in the second because physically that is understandable."

"He has played in two full reserve games and so he could last 90 minutes."