Tony Mowbray haunts former side Sunderland as Birmingham City complete comeback win

Tony Mowbray welcomed former side Sunderland to St Andrew's on Saturday and saw his Birmingham City outfit produce an excellent comeback to win 2-1.

Second-half goals from Jordan James and Koji Miyoshi secured all three points for the Blues, who went 1-0 down in the first-half thanks to Jack Clarke's opener. The Black Cats pressed for a late equaliser but were unable to find a breakthrough.

Mowbray enjoyed a brilliant win against another former side, Blackburn Rovers, on Tuesday and the experienced manager named an unchanged side on Saturday, with the only alteration coming on the bench where Emanuel Aiwu replaced Kevin Long.

The Blues started well but handed Sunderland a golden opportunity to take an early lead when Paik Seung-ho sold Marc Roberts short during a comfortable spell of possession. Clarke capitalised on the error to run through on goal and finish into the far corner, haunting his former boss Mowbray.

Sunderland were unfortunate not to get a second shortly before half-time, again through a Birmingham mistake with Krystian Bielik failing to deal with a simple long ball. Romaine Mundle got his effort off but saw it saved by John Ruddy to keep it at 1-0 going into the break.

And Birmingham levelled the scoreline on the hour mark, James netting his seventh Championship goal of the season. Tyler Roberts turned brilliantly but saw his effort saved by Nathan Patterson, with Miyoshi's effort cleared off the line but falling right into the path of James.

Miyoshi did get his goal to make it 2-1 with just 10 minutes remaining, albeit with a hint of fortune. The Japan international was in the right place to force home from close-range, having seen Jay Stansfield's deflected effort fall at his feet.

Sunderland rallied to try and find a leveller but were kept relatively quiet by a resilient Blues side, with Mowbray getting one over on the team who sacked him earlier this season. Back-to-back Championship wins for the first time since October pulled Birmingham away from the relegation zone and into 15th.