Black Cats grab draw

John bundled the ball over the line after a goalmouth scramble in which Colin Doyle brilliantly saved Ross Wallace's free-kick only to see Nyron Nosworthy head the ball back goalwards.

Paul McShane chested in an own goal to give Birmingham the lead in the 28th minute. Michael Chopra scored a superb 75th minute leveller before Garry O'Connor appeared to have won it for Blues with an 82nd minute strike.

McShane played an unfortunate part in the Blues' 28th-minute opener. Sebastian Larsson's free-kick was headed across goal by Stephen Kelly and the ball struck McShane on the chest, diverting it over the line past a helpless Gordon.

Carlos Edwards came close to firing a spectacular equaliser in the 42nd minute but he blazed his rising effort over the crossbar after finding space on the edge of the Blues box.

Keane had seen enough and made a double substitution on the hour, with John replacing David Connolly and Liam Miller on for captain Dean Whitehead.

Then after Edwards saw a deflected effort sail into Doyle's arms, Keane went for broke - replacing right-back Greg Halford with another striker, former Cork man Roy O'Donovan.

The tactic appeared to have paid off handsomely in the 75th minute when Chopra latched onto a Dickson Etuhu ball and fired a stunning left-foot shot past Doyle from 18 yards.

Birmingham responded seven minutes later through substitute O'Connor, who was fed a delightful ball by Mikael Forssell on the left of the Sunderland box and finished clinically.

In a dramatic finale, there was still time for John to head against the crossbar from point-blank range before Wallace's deflected free-kick was brilliantly parried by Doyle but fell to Nyron Nosworthy, who headed back across the face of goal for John to head in.