Sunderland FC

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• Founded:1879
• Manager:Steve Bruce

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Preview: Sunderland v Birmingham

12 Aug 2010 - 15:21:21

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Sunderland welcome Birmingham City to the Stadium of Light for an intriguing Premier League opener on Saturday afternoon.

Black Cats boss Steve Bruce will lock horns with one of his former clubs as the Midlanders make their way to the north-east and he will be pinning his hopes on his men firing them to an early success.

There could be several new faces on show for this one after both outfits fared well in the transfer market during the summer.

Belgian goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, defenders Ahmed Al-Muhammadi, Titus Bramble and Marcos Angeleri and Paraguay World Cup midfielder Cristian Riveros have all been enticed to the north of England by Bruce.

Blues counterpart, Alex McLeish, has added England goalkeeper Ben Foster, midfielder Enric Valles and towering forward Nikola Zigic to his ranks and the trio should all be pushing for starts in this one.

Birmingham were the real surprise package last term in the top-flight after winning promotion from the Championship the season before. They ended a successful campaign in ninth position, despite being tipped by many pundits to make an instant return to the second tier.

Sunderland came home in 13th and they will be searching for an improvement from their expensively-assembled side.

On the injury front, the hosts have a number of problems ahead of the season's start.

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon (broken arm) and David Meyler (knee ligament) are definitely out while England striker Darren Bent (back) was forced out of international reckoning in midweek and is a doubt.

There are also concerns over Anton Ferdinand (hamstring), Bramble (leg), Michael Turner (thigh), Lee Cattermole (groin) and George McCartney (ankle).

Veteran striker Kevin Phillips is out with a thigh injury for the Blues while Stuart Parnaby (hamstring) and Stephen Carr (toe) are unlikely to feature.

In pre-season, Sunderland beat Hull City 4-2 in Albufeira before losing 2-0 to Benfica. On their return to England, they landed a 2-1 win at Leicester City, but their preparations ended poorly when they lost 3-1 to Bundesliga outfit Hoffenheim.

Birmingham enjoyed five consecutive victories over a Hong Kong XI, Beijing Guoan, Liaoning Whowin, Derby County and MK Dons before falling to a narrow 1-0 defeat to Real Mallorca at St Andrew's last Saturday.

In October last year, Birmingham won 2-1 in their own backyard when Liam Ridgewell and James McFadden placed them in a healthy position.

Nerves were frayed towards the end when Scott Dann put through his own net, but the hosts held on to claim the three points.

However, in the return fixture, Sunderland flew out of the blocks when Bent helped himself to two early goals in March.

Cameron Jerome halved the deficit on the hour, but Fraizer Campbell made sure of the points late in the day as they secured a 3-1 win.