Swansea City 2-4 Sunderland

Jermain Defoe's hat-trick gave Sunderland just their second away win of the season

Jermain Defoe struck a hat-trick as Sunderland dragged 10-man Swansea closer to the bottom three in a game packed with refereeing controversy.

Defoe pounced on Lukasz Fabianski's mistake to score, but Swansea equalised with Gylfi Sigurdsson's penalty.

Kyle Naughton was controversially sent off for a foul on Yann M'Vila but Andre Ayew put the Swans ahead by half-time.

Patrick van Aanholt's deflected shot levelled and Defoe struck twice to secure a second successive league win.

Relive Sunderland's victory at the Liberty Stadium.

Sunderland have now leapfrogged arch rivals Newcastle into 18th in the Premier League table, just one point and one place below Swansea.

Despite Defoe's heroics, it was referee Graham Scott who found himself as the centre of attention, with doubts hanging over three of the six goals as well as the seemingly harsh dismissal of Naughton.

Fury in the stands and on the touchline

Graham Scott moved quickly to dismiss Naughton, who appeared to win the ball

Joining the select group of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Harry Redknapp and David Moyes, Sunderland's Sam Allardyce became only the fifth manager to reach 450 Premier League games.

The former Bolton and Newcastle boss did not have to wait long to celebrate the landmark, as Defoe put Sunderland ahead after just three minutes.

Fabianski inexplicably hit his goal-kick straight to Adam Johnson and was then only able to parry Fabio Borini's shot, allowing Defoe to tap in from what appeared to be an offside position.

Allardyce's elation soon turned to anger, however, as Swansea equalised in similarly dubious fashion.

Referee Scott awarded the hosts a penalty for what seemed like a Wes Brown trip on Ayew, but replays appeared to show the Ghanaian forward had fallen over his own feet.

Sigurdsson confidently converted the spot-kick, much to Allardyce's visible fury on the touchline.

Scott on the spot

If Defoe's opener and Sigurdsson's equaliser were debatable, Naughton's dismissal was a controversial flashpoint which prompted a vitriolic backlash from the home crowd.

Before the red card Swansea had over 70% of possession and the better of territory

The Swansea right-back won the ball from M'Vila but, having done so with studs showing, Scott showed him a red card.

Swansea interim manager Alan Curtis - who waited to confront the official at the interval - claimed Scott got "all the major incidents wrong", adding Naughton "clearly won the ball".

Despite the setback, his side initially responded well to their numerical disadvantage as Ayew latched on to Fabianski's clearance and scored with a powerful drive.

The Swans were not ahead for long though, as four minutes after the restart Van Aanholt's 20-yard shot deflected off Federico Fernandez and flew into the top corner.

Swansea's slide continues

While Allardyce was presiding over his Premier League milestone, this was Curtis' first since being named Swansea's manager for the rest of the season.

Curtis' side defended raggedly throughout and there was a certain inevitability - and, once more, controversy - to Sunderland's third goal.

Defoe was offside as he collected Johnson's through ball but linesman Mark Perry did not raise his flag and the Sunderland striker finished calmly.

The England international striker was then perfectly placed to slide in from Van Aanholt's excellent cross to put the game beyond doubt with his fifth goal in two games.

Swansea, who are 17th in the Premier League table, remain just one point above Sunderland and Newcastle immediately below them.

Man of the match - Jermain Defoe

Jermain Defoe had three shots and scored three goals

What did the managers say?

Swansea manager Alan Curtis: "The first goal and third are clearly offside decisions. You can recover but when you play with 10 men for an hour, that's the one that killed us more than anything."

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce: "We manipulated or played with the situation as it panned out. That's all we can do. We have taken the opportunity rightly or wrongly to win the game. For us it's an unbelievable win. Today it's an enormous, enormous, enormous three points to give us encouragement and hope going forward."

The stats you need to know

• This is just the second time in 16 league meetings that Sunderland have beaten Swansea. The Black Cats last won in the Welsh city in 1963.

• Jermain Defoe has scored in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since February 2015, when he also scored against Swansea.

• Defoe scored his fourth Premier League hat-trick, only 11 players have more.

• Sunderland have scored seven goals in their last two Premier League games, more than their previous eight matches combined (6).

Up next?

Sunderland will look to make it three Premier League wins from three when they travel to Tottenham on Saturday at lunchtime, while Swansea host Watford at the Liberty Stadium on Monday night.