Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City

ADAM JOHNSON condemned his former side to their third straight 1-0 loss at the Stadium of Light & just their second Barclays Premier League defeat of the season this afternoon with an audacious winner.

Manchester City went down 1-0 at the Stadium of Light for the third consecutive season as former Citizen's flyer Johnson beat Joe Hart at his near-post with a 53rd minute strike.

Sunderland more than held their own against the Premier League champions who fall further behind inter-city rivals United in the race for the league title.

Martin O'Neill spoke of his pride at full time after a spirited showing from his side saw back-to-back wins recorded for the first time this season:

"The players were brilliant from start to finish,' the Ulsterman enthused.

"They were really up against it with Manchester City going with the strongest side that they could put out.

Speaking to safc.com, MON continued:

"We were committed and had some fantastic touches throughout the game," the manager continued, "We could have scored more goals!'

O'Neill made just one change from the side which beat Southampton on Saturday, bringing Matt Kilgallon in for the ill John O'Shea at centre-back.

City had the game's first opportunity in the seventh minute when skipper Vincent Kompany headed against the crossbar, the re-bound falling to Yaya Toure to slam into the feet of Simon Mignolet.

Steven Fletcher tested Hart in the 24th minute when he found space on the edge of the penalty area to ping a low left-footed effort towards the bottom corner, Hart getting down to palm the strike away.

Just eight minutes after the break, Sunderland found the breakthrough when Johnson stood up his man down the right-hand flank before swinging a left-footed effort past Hart at his near-post.

Sergio Aguero tested Mignolet when the Belgian raced off his line to narrow the Argentine's angle.

Stephane Sessegnon came close to doubling the Black Cat's lead late on when he tried to chip Hart on the edge of his 18-yard box, the England No.1 spreading himself well to prevent further damage.

Full-time: 1-0

Sunderland: Mignolet; Gardner, Cuellar (c), Kilgallon, Rose (Bardsley); Larsson (Campbell), Colback; Johnson, Sessegnon, McClean; Fletcher.

Subs not used: Westwood (GK), Wickham, McFadden, Vaughan & Bramble.

Manchester City: Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany (c), K. Toure (Barry), Nastasic; Milner, Garcia (Lescott), Y. Toure; Silva, Aguero; Tevez (Dzeko).

Subs not used: Pantilimon (GK), Rekik, Sinclair & Razak.

Attendance: 42 190

Referee: Mr K Friend.