Hostile chants of: “Are you watching Ellis Short?” echoed to the rafters as late goals from Darren Bent and Liam Boyce consigned Sunderland to a second successive relegation while offering Burton an extremely frayed Championship lifeline.

Although a last-gasp controversy with Sunderland having a stoppage-time equaliser disallowed for a perceived handball, deflected a little of that anger against Sunderland’s absentee American billionaire owner, it was ultimately irrelevant. There should be no sense of Wearside injustice. Not at the end of a season when Sunderland’s descent into the third tier for the second time in their history has long felt inevitable.

“I want to apologise to the supporters for coming up short,” said Chris Coleman, who has never spoken to Short and is praying for a summer takeover which might persuade him to stay on. “Maybe my optimism was blind. We haven’t been good enough. I can’t tell you what my future is because I don’t know.”

In principle, the man who led Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 wants to put things right but will not continue to work with at least one hand tied behind his back. “I know what I want to do, I know what needs to be done but changes must be made,” he said. “It depends on Ellis.”

If Burton are to defy the odds and somehow survive they must beat Bolton at home next Saturday and hope for the best when facing Preston on the final day. “We’ve kept it going for another week,” said Nigel Clough, whose introduction of Bent, once Sunderland’s star striker, changed the entire afternoon. “That’s all we can do.”

The sight of Clough in the technical area reminded fans of a certain generation of the days when his father, Brian, scored 63 goals in 74 games for Sunderland before ripped knee ligaments brought his playing career to a cruelly abrupt end. “My father used to talk with such passion about this club,” said Nigel. “It’s unbelievable that we’ve relegated them.”

Early horribly misplaced passes from Lee Cattermole and Paddy McNair emphasised both how things on Wearside have sunk to this nadir and the tension paralysing a team that has won two league games here all season.

McNair, though, has generally proved a positive influence since returning from a serious knee injury and offered ultimately false hope in the 34th minute by scoring his third goal in three games. When Ashley Fletcher did unusually well to remain on his feet under pressure and cue the former Manchester United midfielder up, McNair’s shot, from just outside the area, speared beneath Stephen Bywater.

Refusing to surrender, Clough pressed every available tactical button and Jason Steele did extremely well to repel Jacob Davenport’s left-foot shot. On came Bent, never forgiven here for forcing through a move to Aston Villa.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sunderland fans react after Darren Bent scores. Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images

Although Steele performed wonders to parry Hope Akpan’s shot, Bent sneaked in front of substitute Jake Clarke-Salter to nod the rebound home in the 86th minute before Boyce met Ben Turner’s cross to head the stoppage-time winner.

The drama was not quite over, Sunderland having that late effort ruled out when McNair seemed to have scored from a corner. After initially appearing to give the goal Darren England changed his mind following consultations with his officials.

“The last 60 seconds was a mess,” said Coleman. “But one crazy decision hasn’t relegated us.”

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