It was perhaps fitting, given the club's make up, that Sunderland would be outdone by Ireland on Monday night - as Stephen Ireland's strike was the difference between the sides at Eastlands.

Nyron Nosworthy was moved to right-back for the night as Ian Harte made his first start in a defence that was without any out-and-out right backs, while Daryl Murphy and Anthony Stokes - substitutes in our 1-1 draw with Fulham last weekend - all started.

While Sunderland did manage to hold their own in the first half, they managed to attack the City goal for large spells, without ever forcing Joe Hart into making a save. Kenwyne Jones saw a shot blocked on eight minutes after a cross from Daryl Murphy, before Stokes headed just wide from Grant Leadbitter. At the other end, Stephen Ireland saw his cross cleared away by former City midfielder Dickson Etuhu, while Craig Gordon had an easy save to make from Elano's 26th minute effort.

City did end the first half on the up, with Elano and Ireland coming close for the hosts, but the score remained level as the Lads looked somewhat comfortable against the high flying Blues. Unfortunately, the side that came out for the second half looked unrecognisable, with Anthony Stokes' run down the left shortly after the restart coming to nothing as he failed to spot an unmarked Murphy in the area.

Nyron put a shot wide on the hour mark, just after we'd replaced the misfiring pairing of Murphy and Stokes, as Ross Wallace and Michael Chopra came into the game. We came close to scoring on 65 minutes when Ian Harte's free kick went through the area and didn't hit anyone on the way through. Two minutes later, we were made to pay for that, as City took the lead, when Darius Vassell's cross found an unmarked Ireland, who put a shot past Gordon from 12 yards out.

Sunderland were then looking to repeat the same escape act they'd performed against Fulham and Arsenal, and Grant Leadbitter came close to pulling it off on 72 minutes when he found Wallace's cross, but the Lads failed to muster a single shot on target - meaning that this was a justified defeat for a side that is still looking for its first away win of the season.

Sunderland: Gordon, Nosworthy, Higginbotham, Collins, Harte, Miller, Etuhu, Leadbitter, Stokes (sub 58, Wallace), Murphy (sub 58, Chopra), Jones. Subs: Ward, Kavanagh, Connolly.

Manchester City: Hart, Jihai, Dunne, Corluka, Garrido, Ireland, Hamann, Johnson (sub 46, Vassell), Petrov, Elano (sub 82, Ball), Mpenza (sub 57, Bianchi). Subs: Isaksson, Geovanni.