Blues held at Sunderland

Sunderland's Kevin Kyle scored with a well-taken header to cancel out Mikael Forssell's earlier strike, thereby keeping the Black Cats in the Cup.

The home side started in bright fashion, outplaying their Premiership opponents with their speed and energy.

However the first goal came not for the First Division side but for the visitors - Mikael Forssell showing a little bit of brilliance to open up the Black Cats' defence.

A long punt upfield by Maik Taylor was headed on to Clinton Morrison who held the ball up well before feeding Forssell.

The Finn showed his class by using body strength and great ball control to dribble past two Sunderland defenders, cut inside onto his right foot and curl a low shot past Mart Poom.

The goal was rather harsh on Sunderland and it seemed only fair that they soon equalised with a well created and a clinically finished goal of their own.

Sunderland broke from a Birmingham attack and found Marcus Stewart out on the left. He ran to the byline before delivering a low cross to the near post where Kevin Kyle, six yards out, glanced an excellent header past Taylor into the bottom right of the goal.

Further chances were few and far between, the one near-miss coming from Stephen Wright.

Jason McAteer swung in a cross from the right and Wright connected well with it, sending a looping shot over a stranded Taylor and onto the top of the crossbar.

After that, the game rather slowed to a halt until the dismissal of substitute Aliou Cisse. Booked with five minutes left, Cisse was given his marching orders when he was shown a second yellow card in injury time - he was only on the pitch eleven minutes.

Team Details

Sunderland: Poom, Wright, Bjorklund, Breen, McCartney, Oster, McAteer, Whitley, Arca, Kyle, Stewart
Subs: Tommy Smith, Thornton, Williams, Thirlwell, Alnwick

Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Upson, Cunningham, Purse, Kenna, Lazaridis, Hughes, Savage, Johnson, Morrison, Forssell
Subs: Dugarry, Carter, Cisse, Bennett, John

Referee: G Barber (Hertfordshire)