Sunderland head into the World Cup break on the back of a hard-fought win against Birmingham at St Andrew's. Ellis Simms gave the Black Cats the lead inside the opening half-hour, before on-loan Manchester United man Amad scored a stunning second just after half-time.
But the Blues pulled a goal back through substitute Lukas Jutkiewicz with just over ten minutes remaining, and that meant Sunderland had to see out a spell of heavy pressure in the final stages. It was edge-of-your-seat stuff at times, but they held on to earn all three points.
That meant that Tony Mowbray's side moved up to 12th in the Championship, albeit ahead of this weekend's full fixture programme.
