Volcanic eruptions are often a surprise. On the day that Bolton Wanderers celebrated effectively securing their top-flight status, Mount Keane buried his own team in molten lava just when it was least expected. Survival: buzzword for Bolton, swear-word for Roy Keane. The Sunderland manager’s definition of success is not fifteenth place and he is not prepared to adjust his expectations, as Bolton have had to during a nightmare season with a dream ending.

Superior goal difference to Reading means that Bolton, three points clear of the relegation zone, are all but safe. This game kicked off at 5.15pm on Saturday, so Bolton knew a victory would do against a side that had achieved safety the previous week.

It was not, therefore, shocking that while Bolton went unto the breach, Sunderland were, mentally, on the beach. Goals from El-Hadji Diouf and Daryl Murphy, who headed into his own net, settled a one-sided match.

Keane saw the tame display as evidence of a lack of calibre. It seemed a harsh verdict a week after guaranteeing survival, like being marked down in an exam for dropping your pen on the way out of the hall. “Does that mean that people think that survival is a time to celebrate? If they are, then I don’t really want them at the football club,” Keane said. “There will be changes, trust me. Plenty of changes. Maybe I have been too nice to people, I don’t know. I cannot defend players who give the ball away when they are not under pressure. We are not non-League here. We are Sunderland. We are in the Premiership. And if the players give the ball away willy-nilly, under no pressure, that drives me crazy. We can find a lot of other stuff, but giving the ball away so sloppily just drives me absolutely mental.

“We need to move some players on. That will be done [next] week. It’s irrelevant to me whether players are under contract or not, you just pay them off to go. So I’ll have a busy week this week, trust me. Very busy.

“We have lost 22 games and I can tell you when I am on my holidays I’ll be thinking about those 22 defeats. I won’t remember the victories, and I’ve always been that way. I must be a naturally miserable person. I must be, there’s no getting away from it and it’s my family I feel sorry for because they are the ones I’ve got to go home to.

“So my players are actually very lucky they don’t live with me. Very, very lucky because survival is a word I don’t think, at Sunderland, should be used to describe success. Maybe I’m from a different planet to everyone.”

Diouf might be ambitious enough for Keane. The forward intends to find a new home. “I need to be more challenged, I’d like to play in the Champions League or for a club that has big ambitions,” he said.

Bolton Wanderers (4-5-1): A Al Habsi 7 – G Steinsson 8, G Cahill 8, A O’Brien 8, J Samuel 8 – E-H Diouf 8, K Nolan 8, G McCann 8, D Guthrie 7, M Taylor 7 – K Davies 7. Substitutes not used: I Walker, A Méïté, S Giannakopoulos, T Cohen, G Rasiak. Booked: McCann. Next: Chelsea (a).

Sunderland (4-4-2): C Gordon 6 – N Nosworthy 5 (sub: D Murphy, 61min 4), J Evans 6, D Higginbotham 5, D Collins 5 – L Miller 4 (sub: G Leadbitter, 61 5), D Whitehead 4, K Richardson 4, A Reid 5 – K Jones 4, M Chopra 4 (sub: R O’Donovan, 61 5).Substitutes not used: D Yorke, M Fulop. Next: Arsenal (h).

Referee: M Atkinson
Attendance: 25,053