McLeish's View - Sunderland (a)

Last updated : 16 August 2010 By Brian Cartlidge

Blues came from two-goals behind to earn a point from their opening game of the new Barclays Premier League season at the Stadium of Light.

Darren Bent had given Steve Bruce's side a 1-0 lead 24 minutes into the game - the England striker scoring from the penalty spot after Stephen Carr had allegedly brought down Fraizer Campbell in the box.

Carr's afternnon didn't get any better as the Blues' full-back headed into his own net to hand the hosts a 2-0 lead on 56 minutes.

However, Blues' pulled a goal back through centre-back Scott Dann on 77 minutes and Liam Ridgewell completed the comeback with a second just three minutes from the end of normal time.

"My pre-match team talk was about the resilience the players showed last year which I think they finally got recognition for after being tipped early in the season as one of the favourites for relegation," the Blues boss told Sky Sports News after the match.

"But, there's more pressure on us this season, there's more expectations and that's my next challenge to the players.

"I don't think they played great at all today. We were a little sluggish in certain areas although we were a little unfortunate with the penalty decision, which was a foul outside the box, so that was a setback.

"I always knew that we had it in us to fight back although Sunderland will lament the fact that they were down to ten men after Lee Cattermole's sending off and that eventually caught up with them.

"In saying that it took two fantastic deliveries from set-pieces [both from Seb Larsson] for us to get the goals.

"They played very well with just ten men and for a time our guys were all over the place but credit to them for the way they fought back."

 MATCH STATS