Defining moments for football managers come in many guises - 2-0 down at half-time in the Champions League final, fans revolting, or the chairman breathing down your neck - but for Roy Keane it will always be associated with Abba. The Irishman realised that he had a fight on his hands when he heard Dancing Queen blasting out of the Sunderland dressing-room.

First, some context. In the build-up to today's derby against Middlesbrough, Keane was discussing Sunderland's chances this season. “I face my biggest challenge as a manager now,” he said. “I've got no excuses because we have improved the squad, but good players don't make a good team.”

Keane's statement led to a follow-up question: if getting an expensive squad to gel represented the most difficult test of his abilities, what was the previous one?

As usual, Keane shied away from the expected. “It was in my first season and we went to Ipswich,” he said. “We lost 3-1 and you find out about different players at those times. I swear they were playing Abba before the game - Dancing Queen I think it was. There was two of them dancing in the corner. I remember thinking 'that's not right', but we had no leaders at the time.

“Ipswich would have been outside our dressing-room, listening to Dancing Queen, and thinking they'd got a great chance against us. It was the masseur's choice of music, but what annoyed me was that none of the players had the balls to say, 'We're not listening to this rubbish.'”