As the new year approaches, the casualty list of managerial departures in the Barclays Premier League this season is already approaching 50 per cent of its sum. Steve Bruce, Sammy Lee, José Mourinho, Billy Davies, Lawrie Sanchez, Martin Jol and Chris Hutchings are but postscripts in the annals of their respective former clubs.

The manager of Sunderland could have, and perhaps should have, joined that group. He spent £36 million on players last summer and has seen little return. His team have won only three matches and have descended into the relegation pit.

But that manager is Roy Keane. The aura of invincibility that surrounded him as a player continues to shield him from the fate of mere mortals. Dismiss Roy Keane? It would be a brave man and Niall Quinn, the Sunderland chairman, is not that brave. Or foolish. Not yet, anyway.

Not that Keane appears concerned by the prospect. “It doesn’t bother me a bit,” he said. “If you get sacked, what is it? The end of the world? It’s not. Top managers have been sacked before. Brian Clough was after 40-odd days at Leeds and he wasn’t a bad manager, was he?”

Confidence has never been his weakness. “My relationship with the board?” Keane said. “I haven’t a clue. The best way of answering anybody is winning football games and we’re not doing that. But pressure? I wouldn’t class that as pressure.”

If Keane is not feeling the heat, Quinn possibly is. A return to the Coca-Cola Championship and the loss of revenue, is not an option. Still, Keane seems safe. Even as Sunderland plumbed the depths against Reading on Saturday, chants of “Keano, Keano” rang around the Madejski Stadium. The adulation of the Wearside masses is constant, a point not lost on Dean Whitehead, the Sunderland captain. “It helps that we know that nobody is going to be sacked,” he said. “We’re all in this together.”

Sunderland were poor and Keane seemed to have already settled for a goalless draw, negatively rearranging his formation to 4-5-1 shortly before Reading went ahead. Craig Gordon weakly parried Ibrahima Sonko’s flick-on from a free kick and Ivar Ingimarsson jabbed in the loose ball.

Jump-started into life, Sunderland equalised when Sonko felled Kenwyne Jones in the area and Michael Chopra converted the penalty. Jones could have won it but shot at Marcus Hahnemann when Anthony Stokes, his teammate, was better placed.

Deep in stoppage time, Stephen Hunt scored the disputed winner. Gordon claimed that he had saved the ball before it crossed the line but Hunt, as he would, agreed with Steve Rubery, the eagle-eyed assistant referee. “It was definitely over,” Hunt said.

Reading (4-4-2): M Hahnemann 7 – G Murty 6, I Sonko 5, I Ingimarsson 5, N Shorey 5 – S Hunt 7, B Gunnarsson 6, J Harper 5, R Convey 4 (sub: S Long, 83min) – K Doyle 5, D Kitson 8. Substitutes not used: A Federici, K Cissé, L Lita, A Bikey. Next: West Ham United (a).

Sunderland (4-4-2): C Gordon 3 – D Whitehead 3, P McShane 4, D Higginbotham 4, D Collins 3 – M Chopra 3 (sub: A Stokes, 87), D Yorke 4, G Leadbitter 5, D Murphy 4 (sub: R Wallace, 62 4) – K Jones 7, A Cole 4 (sub: D Etuhu, 62 4). Substitutes not used: I Harte, D Ward. Booked: Murphy, Leadbitter, Jones, Yorke. Next: Manchester United (h).

Referee S Tanner
Attendance 24,082