April 2002 and Manchester United have just lost to Bayer Leverkusen in the semi-finals of the Champions League. “Afterwards in the dressing-room, I looked around,” Roy Keane would later write in his autobiography. “Rolex watches, garages full of cars, f***ing mansions, set for life, forgot about the game, lost the hunger that got you the Rolex, the cars, the mansion.”

April 2008 and Sunderland have just lost to Manchester City at the Stadium of Light. “Maybe we should have had an open-top bus last weekend because everyone was getting carried away by three victories,” Keane said. “Arsenal went 50 games unbeaten at one stage, remember. People took their eye off the ball this week – everybody at the club.”

Times, places and expectations change, but Keane’s quest for excellence remains undimmed. Sunderland are not United and hoarding trophies has been exchanged for avoiding relegation, yet the Irishman remains hypersensitive to the slightest dip in standards.

From transfer-listing latecomers to banishing insipid trainers, Keane has consistently demonstrated zero tolerance to slacking players. Last week he sensed wavering concentration “in my bones”. His 12 years at Old Trafford dripped with glory and also with ferocity because comfort was not in Keane’s nature. It is that attitude he is attempting to instil on Wearside.

On Saturday, Sunderland hosted the biggest crowd of the day in British football; a pale performance and stalled momentum represent a lost opportunity. The team stand seven points clear of the bottom three and are likely to maintain their league status, but their run-in features derbies against Newcastle United and Middlesbrough, a trip to Bolton Wanderers and a final fixture at home to Arsenal.

Start brightly, Keane had told them. “I’ve said it throughout my career – make a few simple passes, win your tackles,” he said. “I might as well be speaking Japanese because we don’t.”

City have been sleepwalking, but a fourth win in 17 matches allowed Sven-Göran Eriksson to “keep dreaming about Europe next season”, albeit via the Intertoto Cup. They, like this match, were mediocre, but having forced his squad to squirm through videos of recent matches, the Swede was given a response. “We had to get the fighting spirit back,” he said.

Sunderland were sympathetic opponents. A dreadful first half gave City impetus, further assisted by an awful penalty decision in the 78th minute, allowing Elano to grasp the lead. Dean Whitehead’s superb volley restored parity briefly before Darius Vassell’s ugly finish. “It was the luckiest goal of my career,” he said.

Sunderland (4-4-2): C Gordon 5 – P Bardsley 6, N Nosworthy 5, J Evans 4, D Collins 5 – M Chopra 4 (sub: R O’Donovan, 79), D Whitehead 5, A Reid 7, K Richardson 3 (sub: G Leadbitter, 46 5) – K Jones 7, D Murphy 4 (sub: C Edwards, 62 4). Substitutes not used: M Fulop, P McShane. Booked: Bardsley, Nosworthy, Whitehead. Next: Newcastle United (a).

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): J Hart 6 – Sun Jihai 6, V Corluka 8, R Dunne 6, M Ball 5 – G Fernandes 6, M Johnson 5 – S Ireland 5 (sub: D Sturridge, 58 6; sub: D Vassell, 82), Elano 7 (sub: D Hamann, 89), M Petrov 6 – Benjani Mwaruwari 6. Booked: Corluka, Gelson. Substitutes not used: A Isaksson, Geovanni. Next: Portsmouth (h).

Referee: M Riley
Attendance: 46,797

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