Sunderland boss Roy Keane promises a Black Cats backlash ahead of the Wearsiders' Carrow Road Championship visit on Saturday. Keane is demanding a response from his under performing players after a midweek 2-1 home reverse against leaders Cardiff.

Sunderland boss Roy Keane promises a Black Cats backlash ahead of the Wearsiders' Carrow Road Championship visit on Saturday.

Keane is demanding a response from his under performing players after a midweek 2-1 home reverse against leaders Cardiff.

Sunderland have now lost three of their last five after an initial upturn in fortunes following the former Manchester United midfield general's much-heralded arrival at the Stadium of Light.

"What do you do? You can't feel sorry for yourself," he said. "We'll look to kick on and get ready for Saturday. The least I expect is a reaction at Norwich. Since I've been here we've lost four or five games and they'd lost four or five before I took the job. That's eight defeats this season and we're only in November. It's not acceptable.

"Some teams go through a season losing only a couple of games. Even on the bad days, you try and get something out of matches. You've got to have that pride in your performance."

The inspirational Keane insists his squad must find the motivation from within.

"I've told the players a few things, but they need to say it to each other," he said. "Players need to get a hold of each other sometimes, not be pals. I've played with lads for five years and never spoken to them, but I was glad they were on my team. Players can go out for a meal with each other five nights a week but real team mates have a go at each other."

Keane admitted high flying Cardiff provide the Championship benchmark the rest must aspire to this season.

Newcastle-born striker Michael Chopra sunk the Black Cats with a double salvo after Chris Brown had dragged Keane's men back into the contest.

"The table doesn't lie," said Keane. "The two sides we've played against in terms of clubs near the top are Cardiff and Preston. They deserve to be there on merit.

"Cardiff have two centre halves who are aggressive defenders - they seem to have a bit of pride in their defending. The lad who got the goals was intelligent, he made good runs which I've seen many times before when he was at Newcastle. It was just a very, very bad night. No pluses whatsoever. We lost it everywhere. I'm not sure any of my players won their one on one battles."