IF Sam Allardyce had been hoping for fireworks on his Bonfire Night scouting mission, the vast majority of the rockets he will have encountered were those being ignited outside the City of Manchester Stadium.

But the Newcastle United manager, in the stands ahead of this Saturday's hugely appealing Wear-Tyne derby, will have returned to the North-East along with the Black Cats support well aware of one cracker which lit up the arena.

Courtesy of some slack marking, Stephen Ireland's stunning volley 23 minutes before the end proved enough to inflict yet another defeat on Sunderland - who have taken just two points from a possible 24 on their travels and won only three times in their last 51 away games in the Premier League.

As much as this was another one of those occasions when Roy Keane's men actually deserved to come away with something, priceless victories are becoming a rarity.

Another encouraging performance from a Sunderland team intent on staying in the Premier League counts for little once again.

On the only other occasion Keane has crossed paths with City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Swede helped Lazio to Super Cup success over Manchester United in 1999.

And it was, once again, Eriksson left smiling this time around, as the Sky Blues recorded a club record seventh straight win on home soil.

More pertinently for Sunderland, however, they are now without a Premier League win in six matches and, with Newcastle next on the agenda, the relegation zone remains too close for comfort after 12 games.

Rather than pit 18-year-old Michael Kay in for his debut against pacy winger Martin Petrov, Keane chose to tinker with the whole of his back four.

With right-back Greg Halford joining Paul McShane on the suspended list, Ian Harte was handed his first start for the club at left-back. That meant Danny Collins was asked to slot into the middle with Nyron Nosworthy afforded the full-back slot he used to fill.

Collins' first duty was not to defend but to attack. The City backline did just enough within three minutes of the start to prevent the Welsh international from heading Sunderland in front from the first corner of the game.

City, without their England defender Micah Richards, have also had their problems with conceding recently, with 11 passing goalkeeper Joe Hart in their previous five games.

But the presence of the old-fashioned stopper Richard Dunne was still going to make life difficult for Kenwyne Jones, who after being given an early reminder from the Irishman, needed treatment on his knee.

Nevertheless Sunderland's bright start continued and the visitors passed the ball around more confidently for much of the first half.

It was not just defensively Keane made the changes. Up front Anthony Stokes was preferred to Michael Chopra alongside Jones. The other notable change saw Ross Wallace, dropped for the first time this season, named on the bench at the expense of Daryl Murphy on the left flank.

The changes had worked and had Stokes troubled Hart from Leadbitter's decent centre instead of climbing to nod wide of the upright Sunderland would have opened the scoring.

Instead the creative figure of Elano - the architect of home wins over Middlesbrough and Newcastle this season - started to become more involved.

The first danger sign was when he was allowed to run 20 yards with the ball at his feet through the Sunderland half before rolling his shot straight into the arms of Craig Gordon.

And then the Brazilian's clever thinking played in Emile Mpenza, only for the Belgian to shoot wide with a poor first time shot.

With Keane standing firm in the technical area to take the barrage of abuse from the Manchester stands, he looked on as Elano fired another effort over from distance.

Keane, well aware of the 14 goals his side had conceded on their travels alone this season, watched as Sunderland's promising opening started to wane.

And he was infuriated with Leadbitter for wasting a decent chance as half-time neared.

The midfielder, with England Under-21 coach Stuart Pearce monitoring, half hit a 22-yard effort after Stokes had been allowed in following Sun Jihai's slip.

In the final stages of the opening half, Sunderland responded to the manager's fury by slowing the momentum and Keane will have been relatively satisfied with the level scoreline at the break.

Although, had Hart not gathered a terrific cross from Murphy when Jones was lurking close by, it could quite easily have been Sunderland a goal up.

It was an indication of how Sunderland had played that Eriksson felt he had to change things. Darius Vassell emerged for the second half as part of a attacking quartet, which also included Mpenza, Elano and Petrov.

The alterations livened up the encounter but Sunderland still occasionally threatened to break the deadlock. One of the best chances of the game was when Jones struck low at Hart when Miller had turned over possession.

Even after the introduction of Italian striker Rolando Bianchi for the ineffective Mpenza, City looked incapable of breaking down the red and white defence.

But, 23 minutes from time, a free-flowing move made the most of another lapse in concentration at the back.

Petrov's outstanding cross-field pass was headed into the feet of Vassell by Javier Garrido. The former Villa striker turned Nosworthy before his deep cross to the back post was volleyed low beyond Gordon by the unmarked Ireland.

Not for the first time this season, and quite possibly not the last, going behind was harsh on Sunderland but the fans are becoming tired of hard luck stories and they will not be willing to listen to another against the Magpies.

Sunderland, renowned for scoring important late goals under Keane, continued to push forward and both Leadbitter and Jones could have equalised from deep Wallace crosses.

But this time there was to be no last minute heroics and Sunderland are left nursing a seventh defeat of the campaign.