In-form Bent remains hopeful of booking a ticket to South Africa

DARREN BENT has eight Premier League games left to persuade England boss Fabio Capello he is worth a seat on the plane to the World Cup finals.

The 26-year-old Sunderland striker took his tally for the season in all competitions to 21 with a double against Birmingham.

Only Wayne Rooney, with 26, and Didier Drogba on 22 have scored more, and fellow England strikers Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Emile Heskey are all behind him.

Bent is still an outsider to make the squad. He said: “Every player wants to go to a World Cup, but at the same time, it is not up to me. Every time I score a goal, I get asked the question about England, but the only thing I can do is just keep doing what I am doing. I have done myself no harm by scoring the goals I have.”

Bent has undergone a major rehabilitation since Spurs boss Harry Redknapp compared his finishing less than favourably to that of his wife Sandra. The frontman has been a revelation since his switch from White Hart Lane, grabbing exactly half of all the goals Sunderland have scored in the league this season.

Bent set the ball rolling after five minutes on Saturday when he latched on to Benjani Mwaruwari’s deflected shot. Six minutes later he collected Steed Malbranque’s pass, cut inside defender Scott Dann and shot firmly past Joe Hart.

It would have been all over before half-time had the excellent Hart not pulled off fine saves from Fraizer Campbell and Kieran Richardson, but opposite number Craig Gordon was put under pressure as Birmingham began a fightback.

Blues got their reward on the hour when Cameron Jerome produced an adept finish and, had Gordon not managed to claw away Liam Ridgewell’s 71st-minute header, City might have gone home with a point. Campbell calmed Sunderland’s nerves when he turned home substitute Jordan Henderson’s cross two minutes from time.

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish was able to consider the bigger picture with his side still 10 points better off than their big-spending hosts.

He said: “Sunderland beat us up here in the (Carling) Cup earlier in the season. I knew we were a much better team than that. We proved that today in the second half and it was much more like the Birmingham that has got us to 44 points.”

MATCH RATING: *** – The question now is how high can Steve Bruce’s team finish after taking eight points from the last possible 12.

REFEREE: Peter Walton (Northants) 7 – Allowed the game to flow so that you hardly noticed him, which is as it should be.