In the previous three seasons the Black Cats have gone out at the first hurdle to Brentford (2006), Preston (2007) and Wigan (2008).

They made hard work of securing their progress this time round and at times it was difficult to believe these were two Barclays Premier League teams after almost an hour of mistakes and misplaced passes

However, Kenwyne Jones finally produced a moment of quality with a 57th-minute header from Kieran Richardson's left-wing free-kick.

Djibril Cisse volleyed home Carlos Edwards' right-wing cross 10 minutes later and although Bolton substitute Ebi Smolarek's ballooned cross-cum-shot caught out goalkeeper Martin Fulop the Black Cats hung on.

"I am delighted that after a bad performance at Everton (a 3-0 defeat) we got back on track. It is great to go through," said Sbragia.

"I was reminded yesterday we hadn't qualified for the fourth round for three years but from my point of view I wanted to get through.

"I think we need to win games to breed confidence in the squad. We changed it around a little bit today (Sbragia made four changes from the Everton defeat) and I felt that team we put out there could see us through it.

"I'm pleased with that and I'm pleased for the players."

The Sunderland boss felt his side could have done slightly better having got into a 2-0 lead but he could not fault their determination in securing the win - in his first home match since taking over permanently.

"The first goal is the most important and we didn't get that last week," he added.

"We got ahead today with a great finish from Kenwyne and the second which gave us a little bit of a breather.

"They (Bolton) got a goal and the last 10 minutes was really nervous.

"It would have been nice to be 2-0 up and see out the game but maybe we are not experienced enough to see the out the game that way.

"At 2-0 the game should have been finished and we should have saved some energy but credit to Bolton they kept going and we knew it was always going to be a difficult game."

Bolton manager Gary Megson felt his side should have capitalised on their chances when they were in charge of the game because, as time wore on, the hosts emerged as the better team.

"I thought we set off fine first half. We closed the ball down well, we had opportunities but we didn't take one," he said.

"It was nip and tuck first half and we mentioned at half-time the importance of the first goal and we gifted it to them.

"I don't take anything away from Sunderland because they have beaten us but in the first half the crowd were starting to get a bit upset.

"Johan Elmander has been through a couple of times, Gretar Steinsson has put in two or three crosses which we've had opportunities from.

"They have not really had a great deal after that but the importance of scoring the first goal cannot be over-stated at the level we are playing at."