AT LEAST SUNDERLAND ARE WINNING SACK RACE

Sunderland are two points off the play-off places, with a game in hand. Win that and, depending on results elsewhere, they could go as high as third. They haven’t won in five games, but one of those was an Fa Cup upset by Mansfield, another a loss in the Football league Trophy. So, in promotion-chasing terms, Sunderland’s slump since beating Ipswich on november 3 equates to a home defeat by Milton Keynes dons and draws away at Fleetwood and doncaster — two clubs who are in the orbit of the play-off places. Fleetwood beat Hull, now top of the table, 4-1 in October. doncaster have played all four teams in the play-off slots this season and have won every game, including away at Charlton and Portsmouth. So Sunderland sacked their manager, Phil Parkinson, this weekend, because that is what they do. no manager has lasted more than two years at the club since Steve Bruce, who left in 2011. Since then, Sunderland have had 10 managers, plus five caretakers and have fallen through two divisions. One wonders whether these events are related.

APPARENTLY the computer hack at Manchester United even reached their confidential scouting and transfer systems. With the ransom rumoured to be set at £15m, we can now expect United to conduct business in their usual way — do nothing for weeks until the deadline is almost up, then try to hand £30m to the wrong group of hackers.

BOXING is indebted to Mike Tyson again. not for his exhibition bout with roy Jones Jnr, met with the widespread scorn it deserved, but for his succinct summing up of daniel dubois’s defeat by Joe Joyce. ‘everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’ Tyson (right) wasn’t specifically referring to this fight, of course, but the analysis stands.