Goals from Ellis Simms and Amad sent Sunderland into the World Cup break on the back of a hard-fought win at Birmingham City. Simms scored his first goal since August to give the Black Cats the lead inside half an hour at St Andrew's, before Amad scored a stunning solo goal just after half-time.
Birmingham - who had hit the woodwork through Troy Deeney inside the opening ten minutes - pulled a goal back through substitute Lukas Jutkiewicz with a little over ten minutes remaining to ensure a nerve-wracking ending which saw the hosts pile forward, with one shot blocked on the line and another saved by Anthony Patterson. But Sunderland held on to win, ending Birmingham's four-game unbeaten run in the process, and they moved up to 12th in the table, albeit ahead of the full weekend programme.
Tony Mowbray made four changes to the side that lost at home to Cardiff City last weekend, with two of those changes forced upon him. Niall Huggins made his first-team comeback after 14 months on the sidelines, replacing the injured Dennis Cirkin at left-back, while Trai Hume came in for the suspended Luke O'Nien at right-back.
