Sunderland cruised into the fourth round of the Carling Cup with a comfortable 2-0 win over Birmingham City at the SOL on Tuesday night. Jordan Henderson and Fraizer Campbell were both on target in the first half to notch their first goals for the lads and secure the win.

With the squad being so small this season there’s not as much room for rotation in this competition as in seasons gone by. As expected Da Silva and Mensah got their first starts in defence in a strong looking Sunderland side.

Craig Gordon started in goal behind a back four of Da Silva, Turner, Mensah and Richardson. Malbranque and Reid were on either wing with Henderson and Cana in the middle. Jones returned up front to partner Campbell. Birmingham as expected made lots of changes one of which saw Super Kev start up front boasting the captain’s armband.

We started well with Malbranque and Da Silva looking menacing down the right hand side. After five minutes of Sunderland pressure we took the lead when Malbranque played in Jones who in turn pulled the ball back from the right wing for Jordan Henderson who curled a shot into the corner of the net. His first senior goal for us and you could see it meant a lot to him as he first ran to the corner pumped up and then signalled at Steve Bruce, possible thanks for the support the manager has given him so far this season.

To be honest Birmingham looked liked a side who wanted to be knocked out of the competition and didn’t threaten at all in the first half .They had one effort on goal according to the scoreboard at half time and this was a long range shot from McSheffrey which Gordon watched comfortably passed the post.

We should have been two up when Malbranque dinked the ball into the path of Jones but the big striker was denied by a great save from Taylor. Jones got hurt in the process but after treatment was ok.

Fraizer Campbell made it two nil after twenty five minutes after he hung in the air and nodded in an Andy Reid cross. We continued to dominate the first half and Kieran Richardson almost fluked a third when his cross looped over Taylor and bounced off the bar. We finished the first half strongly with a couple of corners and Cana came close with a header.

After the break John Mensah, who looked solid and composed at the back, thought he had scored his first goal in Sunderland colours after he bundled the ball over the line from Andy Reid’s corner. However it was ruled out for I presume a foul, as he couldn’t have been offside.

Birmingham posed a bit more of a threat in the second half which wasn’t difficult given their poor showing until then and Mensah and Turner both had to be alert on a couple of occasions to bravely block long range efforts. However, this was about as close as Birmingham came as I think Gordon was only troubled all game with a few crosses which he dealt with.

As we saw out the game it was time for Healy and Murphy to replace Malbranque and Jones. Having put in a good shift in the central midfield Henderson and Cana both tried their luck from range to varying degrees of success. Henderson curled one high and wide before Cana forced a decent save from Turner. With five minutes to go Cana was replaced by Nosworthy as the lads saw the game out.

Final Score: Sunderland 2 Birmingham 0

ALS Man of the Match: Jordan Henderson

Aidan Crowe

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