Last weekend's 1-0 victory at Aston Villa - the Black Cats' first on the road this season - has rekindled hopes they can drag themselves clear of the scrap against relegation.

A second successive win as West Ham head for the Stadium of Light tomorrow would represent another major step forward.

Sunderland have not won back-to-back Premier League games since December 2001, when they defeated Everton and Blackburn over Christmas, a run of 126 top-flight fixtures.

But after two depressing relegations followed by impressive promotions, they could address that record, with Keane confident a significant corner has been turned.

He said: "We have great belief - I see it on the training pitch every day. There is a confidence that we will get things right here.

"We are all impatient on this planet and I am no different, but you have to recognise how far the club has come, and we are trying to build.

"Like any team that is promoted, the priority is to try to stay in the league so you can build.

"It is no coincidence that ourselves and Derby and Birmingham, who have come up, have all found it very, very difficult, because it is so tough physically and mentally.

"But that's the level you want to try to get to and that's why we are in the game.

"I believe I can get Sunderland up there, but it is going to be tough."

Sunderland's mission has been boosted in no small part by the return to fitness of a series of key players and in particular, wingers Carlos Edwards and Kieran Richardson.

However, it is the emergence of £4m signing Andy Reid from his own fitness problems which has perhaps provided a welcome injection of creativity in recent weeks.

Keane said: "Over the last three or four weeks in the games he has been involved in, anything good that has come from our team has come through him.

"You can see that with the naked eye, he seems to be getting a bit sharper, so he will have a big part to play.

"We know at this level, sometimes it is a set-piece, a quality ball in, just one bit of quality.

"Hopefully the likes of Andy or Carlos or Roy O'Donovan, who have come back into the team, can provide that."

Edwards and Trinidad and Tobago team-mate Kenwyne Jones, injury and illness permitting, should be available after a row with their national federation was headed off.