SUNDERLAND'S relentless march towards the Premiership shows no sign of letting up after goals from Grant Leadbitter and David Connolly handed them a precious win over relegation-threatened Barnsley at Oakwell.

However, there was no place for Ireland's Anthony Stokes - he was one of three players left out of the squad, reportedly for missing the coach to Yorkshire on Friday. Leadbitter struck midway through the second half after being brilliantly teed up by Daryl Murphy and Connolly wrapped up the victory with a goal in the dying stages.

Roy Keane has revitalised the north-east outfit since he took over the reins in August and this win stretched their unbeaten run in 2007 to 11 games and maintains their seemingly unstoppable ascent towards the automatic promotion places. The defeat leaves Barnsley manager Simon Davey facing an uncertain end to the season with just three points separating the Tykes from the league's bottom three.

The Black Cats, magnificently supported by 8,000 raucous travelling fans from Wearside, threatened early on through long-range efforts from Liam Miller and Leadbitter within the opening 10 minutes. Sunderland's dominance continued as the half wore on and Connolly twice went close.

Firstly, he blazed his shot over the crossbar after being teed up by the impressive Wallace, and then just two minutes later Barnsley goalkeeper Nick Colgan got down swiftly to gather the Irish striker's whipped effort from the edge of the penalty area.

But the visitors were nearly made to pay for their profligacy after 27 minutes.

Hungarian striker Peter Rajczi was first to react to his compatriot Istvan Ferenczi's neat knockdown, but he was only able to skew his close-range volley narrowly past Darren Ward's righthand post. But the clearest opening of the opening period came on the stroke of halftime, and it fell it Sunderland's dynamic captain Dean Whitehead.

The former Oxford midfielder was at the heart of every Sunderland attack, but after being played through by the bustling Stern John he was only able to scuff his shot into the side netting. The visitors started the second period with the same verve which had characterised their display in the first and went close again when Danny Collins' looping header arched just over Colgan's crossbar.

And after 66 minutes the Black Cats got the goal they had threatened for most of the match. Substitute Murphy made a swashbuckling run from just inside the Barnsley half and after feigning to shoot he neatly teed up the marauding Leadbitter, who blazed a low shot past into the bottom corner.

Deep into stoppage time Sunderland made sure of the three points and plunged Barnsley further into the relegation mire as Connolly wove a path through the Barnsley defence to coolly slot home past Colgan.