For Blues, Damien Johnson's injury meant a recall for Seb Larsson on the right-hand side of midfield in a team that was otherwise unchanged from that which won 1-0 at Crystal Palace on Saturday. Sunderland gave an indication of their intent with one of the most attacking teams you'll see at St Andrews - former Blues striker Stern John up front with David Connolly, with another striker Anthony Stokes - recently signed from Arsenal after taking the SPL by storm on loan at mighty Falkirk - wide on the left, out-and-out winger and former Blues target Carlos Edwards on the right, with another former Blues striker Dwight Yorke continuing the twilight of his career as a holding midfielder. It appeared that Roy Keane was as obsessed with firepower as young Americans are with terrible pop-punk music.
Sunderland are the latest club to have thrown their hat into the promotion ring, and whilst Blues have been there or thereabouts all season, it was the visitors who looked like the confident, assured old pros straight from the off, and it was Blues who looked like absolute beginners.
During the first half Sunderland's pace and movement showed Blues up horribly - Blues were simply unable to compete with them. Connolly forced Doyle into a fine low save before the resulting corner caused chaos in the Blues defence and Connolly again went close. Yorke should then have done better as he arrived late from midfield and struck the ball straight at Doyle when well placed on the edge of the area. At the other end, Blues were providing nothing. Interestingly, amidst all the Damien Johnson sniping of late, he was badly missed, either on the right - where Larsson was looking naïve, giving away petty free-kicks as he does and allowing Stokes a free run - or in the middle where Fabrice Muamba also looked to be being shown up as a little inexperienced and naïve as Yorke and Whitehead bossed the game.
Around the half hour mark it was no surprise that Sunderland took the lead, and it was Edwards, who had spoken in the past about Blues' interest in him, who put them ahead with a brilliant strike. He powered forward down the right and then cut inside and launched a fierce left-foot drive that was angled across Doyle and flew into the far corner. The only real surprise was that it took so long for Sunderland to get themselves in front.
Roy Keane had spoken of being given managerial advice by Steve Bruce in the build-up to this game, but one piece of advice clearly not given - or at least not taken on board by Keane - was to settle for a 1-0 lead and sit back on it. Sunderland continued to put Blues under pressure and Nyron Nosworthy shot wide before Stokes volleyed straight at Doyle who was being kept more busy in this game than in his previous three matches put together. When half-time came it would have been a relief to Blues that it was only 1-0.
Things didn't particularly change at the start of the first-half, as Sunderland continued to dominate. Yorke inexplicably passed to an offside John when well placed to score himself before Blues finally started to put a few moves of their own together. Mat Sadler broke forward and his cross eventually made its way to Larsson at the far post and the young Swede's low drive was saved with his legs by Martin Fulop.
Blues began to create more and more pressure as the second half wore on and as Sunderland looked to tire. A cross from Larsson was deflected dangerously towards goal before Muamba shot just over with a rising drive. Those two players, plus Nicklas Bendtner, to an extent, all struggled for much of this game, and it was interesting to see that for all their talent, they are still very, very young and very, very inexperienced - they haven't played in many games of this magnitude. As I've said before, people may resent Damien Johnson being picked, but he may have assisted Blues' cause tonight.
Rowan Vine, Neil Danns and then DJ Campbell were all thrown on for Blues as they chased an equaliser, whilst Sunderland looked to counter and Stokes went close again, only to be denied by Doyle who produced his most impressive performance thusfar in his early Blues career. Danns added some tempo to the midfield, as too many people were taking their time on the ball and in fairness to Danns, he was playing first-time balls and getting things ticking over quicker than they had been. Campbell too - who inexplicably seems to be Blues' fourth choice striker at the moment (and will probably be fifth choice when Mikael Forssell returns) despite scoring everytime he plays - injected some pace and directness to Blues' attack that had been sorely missed, earning some dangerous free-kicks and giving Sunderland problems.
In the last minute Campbell went close with a header which went just wide. A corner was given, though it didn't appear to touch anyone in Sunderland's colours before going out. From the corner the ball dropped to Larsson who drove the ball back into the danger area, and it came to Vine who cleverly drove the ball across the face of the goal where Campbell was on hand to prod the ball home. North East teams must be sick of the sight of Campbell, whose two goals for Brentford knocked Sunderland out of the FA Cup last season, who then scored twice in two games against Newcastle United last month (although half the Blues team scored against Newcastle United last month) and then popped up with this goal too.
Both teams chased a winner for 4 minutes of injury time, but nothing was doing and the points were shared. For Blues it could well prove to be a crucial draw. Sunderland were comfortably the best side Blues have faced this season, and Campbell's goal meant that Blues kept them four points behind them, and Blues have two games in hand over them. On this performance Sunderland could well be the main threat to Blues trying to win the league, and so this could well be vitally important.
Although Blues were up against it for much of the game, credit where credit's due, they hung on in there and got their reward at the end. I wouldn't even say that Blues were particularly dreadful - Sunderland were bloody impressive and took the game to Blues. Sometimes you get outplayed by a team, and it's not necessarily through any great faults of your own. That happened here, and to get a draw from such a game is something of a positive.
One further disappointment for Blues was the crowd which was less than 21,000. David Sullivan's recent comments may have been ill-timed with respect to a 11.30am kick-off on a Sunday against Stoke City when the game is on television and it's £29 a ticket. However, this wasn't a Sunday morning game, wasn't on TV and was £20 a ticket. Add the fact that it was/could be a huge game in the context of the season, and I suspect that Sullivan's comments could certainly be applied to this match a lot more. If people are still choosing to stay away for games like this (and it was a cracking match and good atmosphere), then what does have to be done to get them back?
Anyway, before the game I'd probably have been disappointed had someone offered me a draw, but having seen Sunderland, having seen the game and in the grand scheme of things, it could well prove to be a good result. Sunderland will certainly be up there at the end of the season, and Blues have taken four points off them over two games this season (I said at the time that the win at the Stadium of Light could look a hell of a result come the end of the season), which could prove very handy. At the end of the day, Blues did well to get a point out of this, and I'm confident no one will play this well against them for the rest of the season, so they should take the positives out of the game, take on board some of the lessons Sunderland taught them and move on to games against Hull (who got done 3-0 in a relegation battle tonight) and then Leeds (who had a disappointing goalless draw at home in a relegation battle tonight) knowing that three points in each game will keep them very much still in contention.