Graphic: Bill Edgar's tactical analysis

“You make your own luck,” Roy Keane said, refusing to find solace for this defeat in the caprices of fortune. The cliché did not entirely ring true after a game in which Sunderland had made some luck, all right - for the opposition.

A fluke own-goal handed West Ham United victory, instantly reversing the momentum of a match that had turned towards Sunderland.

As they pressed, sharp and dangerous in attack, it seemed this would be an occasion proving they have the potential to survive in the Barclays Premier League. It ended as a salutary lesson familiar to clubs near the foot of the table: fail to profit from your purple patches and you risk coming unstuck, however unfair it may be.

Not that Keane, the Sunderland manager, felt that this was an unjust defeat. For him, chance is the refuge of the cowardly; you shape your own destiny, you define the future by sheer force of will. Or by decent defending, at any rate.

“If you concede three goals, there’s every chance you’re going to lose,” Keane said. “I don’t want to talk about luck being against us, I don’t believe that. Fifteen to twenty seconds [before the own-goal] we did have possession and gave it away sloppily . . . I don’t come here looking for sympathy. That’s the reality of the Premier League. Maybe one or two people will give us plaudits but I’m not here to welcome them, I’m here to win football matches.”

Sunderland have accumulated onlytwo points from six away games while West Ham are now in the top ten. Keane was at least pleased with the performance of Kenwyne Jones. “He’s getting fitter and stronger. He had one or two injuries just as he came to the club but he’s quick, obviously a goal threat,” Keane said.

The same is not generally said about Carlton Cole but he had a good first half and softly headed in George McCartney’s deflected cross after nine minutes. But West Ham did not extend their lead and Sunderland were brighter after the break. Jones was a constant menace to the home defence and equalised early in the second half, heading in Grant Leadbitter’s corner.

It was the cue for a long spell of Sunderland dominance and only a superb save from Robert Green, tipping a Leadbitter shot on to the post, prevented them from taking the lead. “A fantastic, unbelievable save,” Keane said.

West Ham toiled. “Mark Noble had pie and mash before the game,” Alan Curbishley, the West Ham manager, said, referring to an interview last week that focused on the midfield player’s East End roots. “Perhaps he had two or three pies. He looked a bit leggy.”

Curbishley did not shake up his side until the final 15 minutes, but it proved crucial. Nolberto Solano was signed in August but Curbishley had not deployed him until yesterday. It was a memorable debut. With 12 minutes left, Nyron Nosworthy failed to clear, the ball broke to the former Newcastle United winger on the right side of the area and his low drive evaded Craig Gordon’s dive, pinged off the post and out. But only as far as the prone body of Gordon. The ball rebounded off his foot and returned to the goal.

“He’s been at the club for five weeks but four have been international breaks, he’s only trained five times,” Curbishley said. “He’s got a great first touch, he brings people into the game.” Great first touch is right: the shot that hit the post was the Peruvian’s first sight of the ball in West Ham colours.

In injury time, as Sunderland left gaps, Luis Boa Morte pulled the ball back from the byline and Craig Bellamy nipped between two defenders to finish off the pass. There was still time for Gordon to make a fine save from Boa Morte when the substitute was clean through.

Then the final whistle and warm applause from the home fans, a section of whom had chanted “you don’t know what you’re doing” at Curbishley 20 minutes earlier. The manager was entitled to a rueful smile about that afterwards. With his substitutions, he had made his own luck.

How they rated

West Ham 3 Cole 9, Gordon 78 (og), Bellamy 90

4-4-2 R Green 7 L Neill 6 D Gabbidon 5 M Upson 5 G McCartney 5 L Bowyer Y 5 H Mullins 6 M Noble 6 M Etherington 6 C Cole 6 C Bellamy 6 Substitutes Solano (for Noble, 74min), Boa Morte (for Etherington, 74), Ferdinand (for Cole, 85) Not used R Wright, H Camara

Sunderland 1 Jones 52

4-4-2 C Gordon 6 G Halford 6 N Nosworthy 4 D Higginbotham 4 D Collins 6 L Miller 6 D Etuhu 6 G Leadbitter Y 7 R Wallace 5 K Jones 8 R O’Donovan 5 Substitutes Harte (for Collins, 79min), Stokes 6 (for Wallace, 46), Chopra 6 (O’Donovan, 46) Not used D Ward, D Connolly.

Referee C Foy

Attendance 34,913