SUNDERLAND'S best run of results in the Championship since the days of Roy Keane came to an end in the most frustrating manner at the Stadium of Light.

It was Jak Alnwick, the former Black Cats academy goalkeeper who left to join Newcastle in 2008, who had a pivotal role in ending the five-match unbeaten run.

The 30-year-old’s saves looked like preventing Sunderland from claiming a fourth straight win, but in the end his performance paved the way for even worse, Cardiff stealing three points.

With three minutes remaining, and Alnwick observing from between his posts at the other end, the Bluebirds’ influential young defender Mark McGuinness nodded in the surprise winner to stun another 40,000-plus crowd on Wearside.

And while that goal leaves Sunderland fifth, it has lifted Cardiff up to seventh and right into the promotion picture courtesy of a fourth win from the last five games under Erol Bulut.

Sunderland should have put the game to bed but their failure to add to the 11 goals they have scored in the last three matches proved costly. The impact of Alnwick, though, cannot be over-stated.

The Hexham-born shot-stopper was actually in Sunderland’s academy system when Keane led Sunderland to such a positive run of results in the Championship, so it was little surprise to see Tony Mowbray name an unchanged side beforehand.

But Cardiff, under former Fenerbahce boss Bulut since June, have started to turn things around after a slow start and arrived on Wearside confident following three wins from their previous four matches.

Nevertheless confidence has been high at the Stadium of Light – where Friday’s England Women’s Nations League win over Scotland pushed back this fixture by 24 hours – and that was evident early on.

Cardiff were intent on slowing things down, knowing how Sunderland look to start on the front foot and attack with freedom in the final third. Despite plenty of early possession in the opposition’s half, the visitors’ tactic worked.

In fact Cardiff had the first shot of real note when Karlan Grant fired over from distance.

From there Sunderland seemed to get more joy. After Alnwick was on hand to comfortably hold a Jobe Bellingham header, the hosts should have had the lead.

Once Bellingham and Abdoullah Ba combined down the right, the latter’s low delivery was side-footed towards the bottom corner by Alex Pritchard but the finish deflected wide off Dimitrios Goutas and rolled wide.

Two walls of blue prevented much of Sunderland’s play from earning an opportunity for much of the first half. But Mowbray’s defence also had to be aware of Cardiff’s counter-attacking approach occasionally.

And when Jack Clarke worked his way past two defenders he found Alnwick in no mood to allow his low strike find the bottom left corner of the net before half-time. That was the start of the Alnwick show.

Sunderland stepped things up after the restart but the shot-stopper continued to frustrate them.

After a lovely interchange of passes also involving Mason Burstow and Clarke, Alnwick was again on hand low to his right to stop Pritchard’s low drive from the edge of the area.

Clarke might not have scored but his quality was there to see. His direct-running got him behind his marker and his cut back was perfect for substitute Patrick Roberts to turn goalwards only for Alnwick to be on hand to stop once more.

And with a little more than ten minutes remaining the game suddenly opened up more. Cardiff’s Kion Etete forced Anthony Patterson into a stop after a mazy run through the Sunderland backline to raise concerns among the home crowd.

And Patterson couldn’t get anywhere near to the late winner when Ryan Wintle’s corner was headed down by McGuinness and it bounced inside the bottom corner of the net.

Sunderland didn’t deserve to lose this, but this was another indication of how teams look to come to grips with their exciting way of playing this season on home turf.