The former Arsenal defender was a winner as a player, collecting four league titles, three FA Cups, two League Cups and a European Cup Winners' Cup medal during his illustrious career.

Having cut his teeth in management at Wycombe and learnt his trade as a coach in Holland and under Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth, he is determined not to lose his hunger for success.

Adams had to wait four games for his first win before it finally arrived at Sunderland yesterday, and the fact it came courtesy of the least convincing performance of his reign to date did little to take the gloss off a 2-1 success.

He said: "I don't intend to be down at the bottom. If I can get a top-10 finish that would be fantastic for a team like Portsmouth, fantastic.

"We have got some players that make it possible and we have done it for the last two years, and we are going to try to do it again.

"In this league, with the teams that are in it with the resources they have, that would be quite an achievement."

Adams, 42, headed for the dressing room at half-time at the Stadium of Light contemplating a third successive defeat after seeing his side outplayed by the Black Cats.

Djibril Cisse's fourth-minute strike was scant reward for the home side, who were in complete control and would have wrapped up the points had it not been for goalkeeper David James and the woodwork.

James twice denied Cisse before the break and once afterwards after being exposed by his defenders, and the Frenchman had a header ruled out for offside.

The 38-year-old England international was helpless when Kieran Richardson unleashed a 16th-minute effort from 20 yards, but the post came to his rescue.

Whatever Adams said at half-time - and he insisted it was all organisational rather than industrial - did the trick, and they were back in the game within six minutes when Algerian midfielder Nadir Belhadj blasted home a stunning equaliser.

But it was left to Jermain Defoe to secure the victory with a nerveless injury-time penalty after full-back Glen Johnson had been tripped inside the box by substitute El-Hadji Diouf.

Defoe said: "Anton Ferdinand is my mate and he said, 'You are going to miss', but I was confident.

"I was just delighted when it hit the back of the net, I was so happy.

"I gave him [Ferdinand] a look. They worked really hard as well and I suppose if it was us who had conceded a penalty in the last minute, we would be devastated.

"But overall it was a good game and we were delighted with the three points.

"We are delighted for the manager to have his first win."

The small band of travelling supporters in the stand behind Marton Fulop's goal celebrated deliriously, in stark contrast to the home fans who, a fortnight after acclaiming a famous derby victory over Newcastle, greeted a third straight defeat with boos.

For manager Roy Keane, for so long an on-field adversary of Adams', that was hard to take.

Already without first-choice goalkeeper Craig Gordon, he lost left-back George McCartney and striker Kenwyne Jones to injury before kick-off.

Jones, who made his first start of the season at Chelsea last weekend after a knee ligament injury, hurt the same knee in training on Friday, and the manager is anxiously awaiting a diagnosis ahead of Wednesday night's Carling Cup clash with Blackburn.

Keane said: "Kenwyne literally slipped with two minutes to go of training and just felt his knee.

"He came to the hotel with us, we took him in the squad, but on Saturday morning we thought we weren't going to take any risks.

"How serious it is, we will probably know in the next 24, 48 hours.

"But he could be okay for this week. We will just keep an open mind on it."