Sunderland 0, Birmingham City 1.

IF this was meant to be a happy homecoming for Niall Quinn then Birmingham City, a team which also spent last season in the Premiership, simply forgot to read the script.

For the first time since Quinn's Drumaville consortium successfully took control of Sunderland, the Wearside faithful had the chance to turn out in force to welcome the return of a hero at the Stadium of Light.

But Mikael Forssell made the most of a clumsy challenge from new signing Clive Clarke on Damien Johnson to grab the points with a powerful penalty.

That strike, just six minutes before the break, was all that separated two teams who are expected to push for promotion this season.

Birmingham, hardly title contenders on this evidence, have now won two in two whereas Sunderland will hope their first league points under the new regime will arrive against Plymouth on Saturday.

In his programme notes Quinn again reiterated he will be leaving 'no stone unturned' to ensure Sunderland head in the right direction again. The sooner he finds the answer the better if he wants to see the fans flocking back.

Despite the defeat there were positive signs for Sunderland but Quinn knows he desperately needs new faces.

Despite signing West Ham's Clarke he stuck with the XI who lost narrowly at Coventry.

And the fans who did turn out to witness the return of Quinn were greeted to an opening period of grit, determination and, at times, good football.

Less than 90 seconds had elapsed when Liam Lawrence should have directed a back-post diving header into the net after Tommy Miller's long throw was flicked on at the near post by Daryl Murphy.

Moments later, Murphy charged through and skewed his left-foot strike wide of the upright after Miller's gutsy challenge on Matt Sadler sent the Irishman through.

Murphy was lively and eager to add to his opening-day goal on Sunday but plenty of endeavour and a willingness to shoot on sight failed to conjure up the elusive strike.

And two wayward efforts from Blues midfielder Medhi Nafti encouraged the visitors to press on themselves.

The departure of Caldwell through injury meant an early introduction for debutant Clarke and Danny Collins reverted from left-back to the middle alongside Kenny Cunningham.

Clarke's driving runs forward caused problems initially and then, after a breakdown in the attack, Sunderland broke again and went close when Grant Leadbitter struck a sweet right-foot drivejust wide of Maik Taylor's left post. But promising play went unrewarded and Birmingham capitalised as half-time approached, much to the frustration of Clarke Fabrice Muamba, who chose the second city ahead of Wearside when he was allowed to leave Arsenal on loan, burst through and fed Johnson.

Johnson's first touch nicked the ball beyond Clarke and the Irish left-back felled the winger in the area. Forssell stepped up and struck powerfully past Ben Alnwick - who was yesterday selected in the England Under-21 squad.

Sunderland looked as if they had responded perfectly when Lawrence cut inside before curling a shot with his right foot past Taylor into the net, but it appeared to be helped in by Murphy, who was ruled offside.

For most of the second half Sunderland enjoyed the larger share of possession but breaking down the Birmingham backline and creating clear opportunities was proving a thankless task.

Lawrence worked his way inside a couple of times but hardly tested Taylor, while Whitehead could only find the advertising hoarding with a strike from 20 yards.

Birmingham seemed more than happy to settle for the counter attack - highlighted by Forssell's departure for midfielder David Dunn - and it was clearly evident why as Sunderland tried to claw themselves level.

Elliott went close with a shot on the turn just after the hour but the only other occasion they looked like equalising was when Whitehead's free-kick was deflected wide late on.

In fact had Nicklas Bendtner, on loan from Arsenal, reacted more precisely in stoppage time the defeat could have been worse.