MARTIN O’NEILL’S encouraging start as Sunderland boss has spared his family and friends a backlash.

The 59-year-old was thrilled last Wednesday evening when his side secured a second victory in his three games at the helm to date with a 3-2 win at QPR.

However, he acknowledges that his mood can change markedly when things are not going so well.

“I’m always ebullient when we are winning games. Wait until you see the other side,” he said. “It’s pretty dreadful, honestly. It spoils my day and then what happens is I go and spoil other people’s day, like my family.

“But Wednesday night was just fantastic, really fantastic. Just winning a football match is great. It doesn’t leave you.”

Six points from a possible nine have left smiles on the faces of O’Neill, his players and the club’s supporters and eased the Black Cats three points clear of the Barclays Premier League drop zone.

O’Neill has endured a whirlwind start to his tenure and the intensity is only likely to increase with the games coming thick and fast and the winter transfer window approaching.

However, he insists he is enjoying it, particularly when things turn out as well as they did at Loftus Road.

“In a sort of perverse way, I am,” he added. “Naturally the winning of football games, the feeling in the dressing room, the players were elated and the feeling was shared by everyone.

“Just winning football matches, it’s really fantastic. I am still euphoric. I will come back down to earth, but allow me a day or two to enjoy it.

“The victories are great. You celebrate them, seemingly, for about 10 minutes, and defeat seems to last about a week, so I am going to try to reverse that.”