What a poor performance it was today.

All of that hard work against Man Utd and Liverpool feels as though it’s gone to waste. We seemed to start well but after the first ten to fifteen minutes it was clear that Birmingham were beginning to take a foothold in the game.

It was only a matter of time before Birmingham would score and they obliged through a Liam Ridgewell header. He was quite clearly offside but we’ve had our fair share of luck lately so really can’t complain, the ball should have been cleared but instead he was given far too much space and gifted a free header.

I was glad to see us go in only one behind and fully expected us to come out fighting in the second. However this was not to be the case. Birmingham scored again in the 48th minute through McFadden who embarrassed Bardsley with a quick turn and calmly placed the ball past a helpless Craig Gordon.

The rest of the game was very much of the same, 100 mile an hour football with little quality. In the last ten minutes Sunderland finally began to pile on the pressure and our efforts paid off when from a free-kick, Turner flicked the ball with his head over Hart and it was carried into the net by the foot of Dann. It was backs to the wall stuff for Birmingham after that. The most notable chances came from Frazier Campbell and Darren Bent.

Campbell managed to head over the bar when it looked easier to score and Bent hit the post after getting on the end of a fantastic Any Reid cross. We could quite easily have equalised and probably should have but it would have been an injustice to Birmingham who deserved all three points.

The lads will have to pick themselves up for their next two fixtures against Villa and West Ham who always give us a good game at the Stadium of Light.

Jordan Henderson Scores Past Birmingham City In The League Cup

Sunderland travel to play Birmingham City today. It’s always a tough game down at St. Andrews so we’ll have to approach the game in the same light as we approached the Man Utd and Liverpool games. It’s hard not to feel confident at the moment after some fantastic recent displays from the lads but we can’t take our foot off the pedal because consistency is the key.

Steve Bruce said: “We have produced very good performances and beaten Liverpool and drawn with Manchester Untied – that is all.”

“I’m not one to get carried away with it.”

“I am hearing all these things and that we are going along nicely, but I won’t be taking it for granted because if you do then it will kick you.”

Bruce will return to St. Andrews having served 8 years of his life at the club. 2 years as a player and 6 years as a manager. His time at Birmingham ended when he chose to leave the club to manage Wigan. He insists that he has no hard feelings against the Birmingham City fans who always treated him very well.

He explained “I was sad at the way it ended, but that is football.” No doubt the Birmingham fans will be right on his back from the get go after receiving a strange rallying call from Alex McLeish. They’ll also be stirred on by the news that the club has been taken over by new Chinese owners who have pledged £40m to spend on new players in January.

Sunderland really have to put a run of results together if we are planning to compete in the top half of the table. It’s hard not to get ahead of ourselves but this is often the case and we really must keep our feet on the ground, continue to battle for everything and make sure we are on the top of our game.

Probable team: Gordon, Bardsley, Richardson, Ferdinand, Turner, Reid, Cana, Henderson, Malbranque, Bent, Jones.

Haway the lads, we’ve beaten them 2-0 already in the League cup this season, let’s give them another good showing.

Trevor Carson has pledged his future to Sunderland AFC by signing a contract which should keep him on Wearside until the summer of 2012.

Carson said he was “over the moon” to sign a new deal and believes his hard work is paying off.

Steve Bruce hailed his young keeper on the SAFC website: “We’ve seen a huge improvement in Trevor recently.”

“He’s still young in goalkeeping terms but he’s brave, a good shot-stopper and has excellent distribution.”

Carson made two appearances for the Sunderland first-team in pre-season and hopes to build on that in the near future. He understands he will of course have his work cut out as Craig Gordon and Marton Fulop stand in his way.

Great result from the lads today, they were truly fantastic. The talking point no doubt will be the deflected goal off a beach ball which was keeping Bent onside in the Liverpool penalty area and then played a hand in the goal meeting Bent’s shot with a cool finish, nestling the goal past Reina and into the net. In fact, it’s fair to say that the beach ball played better than the Liverpool forward line.

Bech ball’s aside (which was thrown onto the pitch by the Liverpool fans…unlucky) we were class. We deserved the win, battled to a man and looked very dangerous going forward. We were unlucky not to go further ahead and a 2 or 3 goal scoreline would have been just rewards for such a tremendous performance.

It’s about time we got a little luck and after a good display it was nice to see us hang on in injury time and get the much deserved 3 points. I was surprised at how many minutes were added on though…7??? Typical really. The ref wasn’t the best.

I’d have to give Cana man of the match, oh and the fans were spot on. I thought the atmosphere was excellent today. The Liverpool fans appeared a little shellshocked though.

We’re 7th in the table, onwards and upwards! Haway the lads.