What a difference a Keane makes eh? The best result I could see us getting yesterday was a draw, but when we went 1-0 down so early, I thought Sunderland were likely to sit on it and make it very hard for us to score. That they did but the lads didn’t roll over or lose concentration as they had been doing in most away games this season.

If you look at our games at Bolton, Wigan, West Brom and Newcastle, we were an easy touch. With Palacios and particularly Robbie Keane in the mix, we are a totally different proposition away from the Lane as the performances at Hull and Sunderland demonstrate.

Credit to Sunderand, they are a hard side to beat under Ricky Sbragia, and I don’t see them getting sucked into the relegation picture.

Aston Villa is another tough away fixture for us next week but Villa do seem to be having a mini blip at the moment. I’m sure Marin O’Neill will be targeting the home game against Tottenham as the perfect time to get their Champions League challenge back on track. Unfortunately for him, it will be a tougher game than he thought it might be a few weeks ago.