The young Magpies recovered from a two-goal deficit courtesy of goals from Tom Allan and Elias Sørensen before substitute Rosaire Longelo rifled home the late winner to claim maximum points and earn bragging rights over their North East rivals.
The victory, United's fourth in five Premier League 2 matches, also saw the youngsters leapfrog Aston Villa into the play-off spots of the second tier whilst passing last season's points tally of 21 with eight league games remaining.
And, despite missing a number of chances in the opening 45 minutes, Dawson was happy to see Newcastle turn the game around in their favour.
He told nufc.co.uk: "The players were well aware that we'd gifted Sunderland a couple of goals in the first half in terms of individual errors but I thought for the majority of the match, the squad did what was asked of them.
"We asked for hard work and effort as normal and there were some good basics in terms of looking after the ball, which we did. We created seven or eight great chances in the first half which we didn't put away.
"The second half was about trying to be on the front foot a bit more and playing higher up the pitch. It was a matter of time before one of those chances would go in.
"We reminded them at half time not to get on each other's cases and let them know mistakes can happen but you just need to do what you practice in training every day, which we did and thankfully it has ended up with a positive result. The lads will recover now and there is a bit of added momentum going into Tuesday's game."
Longelo's match-winner, an emphatic follow-up after Sørensen's free kick was only parried by Anthony Patterson, wasn't the only goal which arrived at a key time as, minutes before the conclusion of the first half, United halved the deficit through Allan's strike.
And Dawson added: "I felt the timing of the (first) goal, given the chances we had in the opening half, changed the team talk for ourselves and our opponents.
"It was a good time to score and it was a great goal for us in terms of the build-up play and the quality on the ball as it showed what we are capable of and, if we get it right like we managed to do in the second half, we can get a lot more chances.
"We've reinforced to them that the scoreline could have been vastly different on another day. We have loads of quality and pace and when we get it right, with players carrying out the basics very well, you are giving yourself a fantastic opportunity to get a good result.
"Before the free kick was taken, we made a slight change at the time and instructed to move a couple of people around. Obviously, the first player needs to hit the target which Elias did. He and a lot of the players have practised this on a daily basis but everybody carried out their job which led to the winner."
