SOCCER:ROBERTO MANCINI was left reflecting, ruefully, on what might have been last night. Manchester City's manager struggled to disguise his frustration after his side wasted the chance to go clear at the top of the Premier League, surrendering to Ji Dong-won's goal four seconds from the end of stoppage time for a 1-0 defeat.

“This is a big opportunity missed because we could have gone three points clear of Manchester United but we have to refocus now and put this defeat out of our minds,” said Mancini, whose team are level on points with United, albeit with a better goal difference. “We have another important game in just two days at home to Liverpool so we have to put this out of our minds now.”

City’s manager refreshed his starting lineup and arguably paid the price for resting some of his best players against Martin O’Neill’s injury-hit team.

“We had to win this game,” said Mancini, who was so upset at the end he walked up the tunnel having forgotten to shake O’Neill’s hand. “A strong team can’t concede this game, so this moment is a strange situation.”

It was not lost on Mancini that, as Sunderland broke forward for their winner, five out-of-position City players were left standing virtually still. “I’m really disappointed. We can’t concede to a counterattack like that at the end,” he said. “In the first half we didn’t play very well but in the second half we were much better and had a lot of chances to score. We didn’t score but then we conceded two or three counterattacks in the last 10 minutes, which were really dangerous. Sometimes you can’t win games because it’s too difficult but you should not lose. We needed to defend those counterattacks better.”

Ji’s goal meant City’s 19 shots and twice striking the bar counted for nothing. “We were very unlucky,” said Mancini, who thought Ji was marginally offside.

“But there are days when sometimes things don’t go your way and no matter how hard you try it’s not going to be your day. We didn’t get the offside decision on the goal and now we have to move on. I think we are having a bit of bad luck at the moment but we’ll look to respond quickly against Liverpool.”

It is likely he will field a different side at the Etihad Stadium. “I changed six or seven players today but we play two games in 48 hours, so it’s impossible to play the same players,” he said.

Asked if yesterday’s performance was good enough, Mancini replied: “No, not for a top team. In that situation, we attacked with eight players and the same players who attack need to come back and run quickly.

“I know football and for that reason in the last 15 minutes, I continued to call (central defenders) Vinny (Vincent Kompany) and (Joleon) Lescott to say, ‘Stay there, stay there, don’t leave the space’, because that was dangerous. We continued to attack and sometimes we wanted to attack with 10 players. This is impossible.”

The omens were not promising for Sunderland earlier in the day when manager O’Neill was forced to do without goalkeeper Keiren Westwood, defenders Phil Bardsley and Titus Bramble and midfielder Kieran Richardson.

But O’Neill’s side produced a performance of real grit to give themselves the opportunity to snatch a remarkable victory at the death.

Sunderland created arguably the game’s best two chances before the dramatic finish, with Nicklas Bendtner with three minutes gone and Stephane Sessegnon 19 minutes after the break failing to make the most of them.

For City, Edin Dzeko was unable to take any of the opportunities which came his way, while it took a fine save from home goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, playing in a protective mask and for the first time since fracturing his nose and an eye-socket in October, to deny substitute Sergio Aguero from point-blank range.

Micah Richards, a 67th-minute replacement for Aleksandar Kolarov, hit the bar with a minute of normal time remaining, but it was Ji who finally snatched the win in the fourth minute of stoppage time when he rounded Joe Hart from Sessegnon’s pass to spark wild celebrations at the Stadium of Light.

There was a suspicion of offside about the goal, although after seeing his side concede a controversial penalty on St Stephen’s Day, O’Neill was delighted to have received the benefit of the doubt.

O’Neill, whose recalled goalkeeper Simon Mignolet played in a face mask protecting a fractured eye socket, had no choice but to deploy people out of position but was left delighted by their efforts.

“It was a remarkable performance,” said Sunderland’s manager, close to losing his voice. “To contend with all our injuries like that was extraordinary. It was a fantastic game. We’re fighting for our lives in this league and we defended with our lives.”

“They tell me it was marginally offside – marginally, marginally – and we ended up winning the game.

“It’s been an incredible weekend for teams and we are delighted with three points.”

O’Neill, who insisted he had no problem with Mancini’s early departure from pitchside at the end of the match, was thrilled to have secured the points.

Asked if he was delighted, he said: “What do you think? Absolutely, yes. It was just a remarkable performance by the team.

“The roar for the goal was deafening, and I was delighted to hear the roar for the final whistle as well. It was a fantastic effort, really, really fantastic.”