Black Cats trail in dogfight with City

Sunderland 1 Man City 2

Summer signing Darius Vassell gave Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce a swift return on his investment with a superbly-taken opening goal as the visitors held sway in the first half at Sunderland.

The England international ran on to Joey Barton’s 10th-minute pass before guiding the ball past Kelvin Davis with the outside of his right foot to give the visitors the perfect start, and Trevor Sinclair increased the agony for the Black Cats with a superb second 10 minutes before the break.

However, debutant Anthony Le Tallec – who had earlier passed up two glorious opportunities to level inside three minutes – claimed his first goal for the club when he headed home from Dean Whitehead’s 41st-minute corner to give his side hope.