Sunderland succumbed to their first defeat under Keane as an on-form Ipswich side ran out deserving 3-1 winners at Portman Road.
Despite taking the lead through a comical Jason De Vos own goal, Sunderland never looked at their flowing best seen at Leeds and instead seemed easily riled and determined to intimidate their opponents, eventually resulting in a silly 86th minute sending off for Ross Wallace for two bookable offences.
Ipswich equalised only minutes after the visitors took the lead, Darren Currie curling in a free kick in the 32nd minute that Alnwick allowed to slip under his body. Sunderland struggled to create any real chances and counted themselves fortunate to go in at half time on level terms.
However midfielder Alan Lee struck twice in 3 second-half minutes as he headed past a despairing Alnwick on 62 minutes and then pounced on a defensive error by Stan Varga to round the Sunderland ‘keeper and slot home.
Sunderland were lucky that Ipswich added no more goals as the home side took their foot off the pedal, and things went from bad to worse when Wallace, one of Sunderland`s better performers, was given his marching orders.
Ipswich: Price, Richards (Moore 90), De Vos, Naylor, Harding, Noble, Williams (Bowditch 87), Sito, Currie, Macken (Clarke 73), Lee.
Subs Not Used: Supple, Wilnis.
Sunderland: Alnwick, Neill Collins (Lawrence 70), Cunningham, Varga, Robbie Elliott, Liam Miller, Whitehead (Leadbitter 45), Kavanagh, Wallace, Brown (Hysen 45), Yorke.
Subs Not Used: Ward, Danny Collins.
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