Sunderland survived a late onslaught to pick up a hard-fought 2-1 win against Birmingham at St Andrew's on Friday.
Everton loanee Ellis Simms fired Sunderland in front in the 25th minutes after latching onto Amad Diallo's through ball.
Sunderland looked to be cruising to a comfortable win when Diallo doubled their lead shortly after half time, but Lukas Jutkiewicz came off the bench to pull a goal back with 12 minutes remaining to set up a grandstand finish. Sunderland managed to hold on as they moved into the top half of the Championship.