Sunderland 3 Birmingham 1

A bad start saw Birmingham slip to defeat against their former manager Steve Bruce at Sunderland.

For the second game in succession, Blues found themselves two goals down early in the first-half as a double from Darren Bent put the home side well ahead after just 11 minutes.

Cameron Jerome gave the visitors hope by pulling a goal back after the break, but a late strike from Fraizer Campbell settled three welcome points for the struggling Black Cats.

Sunderland started as they meant to go and were ahead within five minutes, Bent with the finish from six yards after Stephen Carr's point-blank challenge on a goalbound Benjani had divered the ball into his path.

The red-hot striker took another six minutes to make it goal number 21 for the season with a rasping drive past goalkeeper Joe Hart from the edge of the box, after taking a touch to prime Steed Malbranque's pass.

That gave Alex McLeish's men a mountain to climb but they came back into it in the second-half with a goal - after two good earlier chances went begging - from Jerome.

Once again the striker found himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Craig Gordon but made no mistake this time, sidefooting inside the far post to pull one back for Blues.

But any hopes of a comeback were diminished by Campbell's goal for Sunderland with two minutes to go, sliding home Jordan Henderson's cross to seal the win.