An abhorrent first half display from Sunderland meant that a late second half fight back was ruled mostly pointless as Swansea came away from Wearside with a well earned three points.
A brace by Ronald Pereira gave the Swans a commanding lead going into the break, we got a goal back via Luke O'Nien but we were unable to find an equaliser.
Mike Dodds' third spell as Sunderland's interim boss began with the Black Cats hosting 18th place Swansea in a game where three points for both teams would be massive for their end of season aims. For Sunderland, having fallen seven points behind sixth place after two defeats in one week, a win could keep our fleeting promotion hopes alive. For Swansea meanwhile, after picking up just four points from their last possible 21, they now found themselves only four points clear of the relegation zone so a victory would not only give them a massive confidence boost but also some breathing room.
SUNDERLAND XI: Patterson, Hume, Seelt, O'Nien, Hjelde, Styles, Neil, Ekwah, Ba, Bellingham, Rusyn
Subs: Bishop, Pembélé, Hemir, Burstow, Mundle, Aouchiche, Rigg, Kelly, Lavery
SWANSEA CITY XI: Rushworth, Cabango, Allen, Grimes, Paterson, Tymon, Placheta, Cullen, Wood, Naughton, Ronald
Subs: Fisher, Darling, Lissah, Fulton, Patino, Cooper, Yates, Kukharevych, Sagoe Jr
Nazariy Rusyn had the first opportunity of the day but his shot flew well over the bar.
Unfortunately, the visitors took the lead inside the opening 20 minutes. Josh Tymon crossed the ball towards the six yard box, an initial header from Liam Cullen was saved by Anthony Patterson but Ronald struck the rebound home.
Five minutes later and the Swans came close to another goal when Przemyslaw Placheta fired over.
Ronald had his second of the game within ten minutes of his first. The Brazilian was played in by Joe Allen and the ball found the bottom left corner.
The Swansea goalscorer then very nearly scored an identical goal to his second however the ball creeped just past the post this time around.
Patterson did well to prevent a close range Placheta header from a corner, turning it onto his post.
Trai Hume was the first man into the book late on into the half for a sliding challenge into Cullen. Both Jamie Paterson and Ben Cabango were then booked for arguing with the referee about the decision to only give a yellow and the scuffle between both sets of players that resulted.
At half time it was Sunderland 0-2 Swansea and the away side had been totally dominant throughout. Sunderland's defending was atrocious and seemingly our ability to create anything of note going forward was nullified by the absence of Jack Clarke.
Pierre Ekwah attempted an audacious strike from outside the box, the ball went just inches above the bar.
A long, largely quiet period followed which was broken via an O'Nien goal. Ekwah whipped in a free kick and our captain was there to head it into the back of the net. 13 minutes of the 90 to go and we were in with a shout of a point.
Ronald had a great chance to wrap up the win for the away team, Patterson was able to save his effort though by turning it onto the woodwork.
In stoppage time Harry Darling was booked for time wasting and then Tymon also went into the book for a foul on Chris Rigg.
The dying moments of the game saw Sunderland take a corner that Patterson (who had come up for it) was unlucky not to capitalise on.
FULL TIME: SUNDERLAND 1-2 SWANSEA CITY
