Inside an exhausting but crucial win for Sunderland - and making sense of where they stand at the break

The kind of end to a game where a minute feels like an hour, that sprouts grey hairs and brings fingernails to a premature end.

He looked furious but Tony Mowbray said he felt almost amused when the fourth official raised his board and indicated seven minutes of added time. It is exactly the kind of firm and fair officiating he has been calling for ever since he walked through the door on Wearside, enforced at the exact moment when he really didn't want it.

For this Sunderland and where they are right now, there aren't too many bigger challenges than this.

Mowbray has for much of his tenure been facing an ever-present anxiety over a lack of physicality and height in his team, a problem that grew even worse during the week with Luke O'Nien suspended and Dennis Cirkin injured. By the end Birmingham had three genuine centre-forwards on the pitch and all of them towering figures in the air. They are direct but it is purposeful and you suspect for the home fans, exciting to watch when the momentum flows with them. Throw in some lightning pace in midfield (is George Hall the fastest player we have seen face Sunderland since Adama Traoré?!) and you have the kind of opponent that can cause major problems for a technically-talented but at this moment depleted side.

They weren't really able to break, because Ellis Simms isn't yet ready to complete 90 minutes, his toe is clearly still causing him some discomfort and he can barely jog. But Mowbray knows taking him off could be the difference between clearing one of these dangerous crosses and dropping two points. It's Catch-22 stuff in the dugout.

He can't bring another defender on, because there's only one on the bench and while Zak Johnson is a talented prospect with a bright future, this isn't the moment for an 18-year-old to make his Championship debut. Yet Niall Huggins is playing his first game for over a year, and even though he's grown stronger through the game, asking him to play 97-minutes is not ideal to put it mildly. It's Catch-22 stuff in the dug-out.

But Trai Hume clears an effort off the line, Anthony Patterson one with his face shortly afterwards. Danny Batth heads clear what feels like 100 long balls, just about.It was testing, it was exhausting and in the end, it was successful.

Under Mowbray this Sunderland side have played some excellent football but this was a night when it was about finding a way, any way, and getting into that break unscathed. Normally he asks his team to dominate the ball but not so here. For large periods they sat deep, defended in numbers and looked to break quickly when the opportunity provided.

To that end, Mowbray had opted to go with Amad over Patrick Roberts wide on the right and this was not a decision he had taken lightly. Roberts is a player who the head coach said a few weeks ago might be the best in the division, but a counter-attacking strategy meant that speed and the ability to carry the ball large distances would be key. In the end, Amad's magic was the difference. An outrageous assist for Ellis Simms, and a glorious goal of his own just after the break. Mowbray sees a player now settling into the group and finding himself a home, and believes that the performances are beginning to flow from that. Crucially, the talent in possession is being matched by a major physical output out of it.

This win, though, was maybe best embodied by the player who teed him up. There have been some difficult moments for Dan Neil this season but what has been impressive is how generally he is adding the steel to go with his undoubted technical quality. This performance embodied it - he dominated his battle with Manchester United loanee Hannibal Mejbri and then produced that game-changing moment on the ball.

This was, as Mowbray said afterwards, his team finding a way. Were they fortunate? In the end, maybe a touch. Maybe, after a bruising two months in which they have largely operated with no strikers and an important chunk of their defensive options, they deserved that. After 20 games, no one could doubt the heart of this team and that isn't a bad place to start.

The significance of going into the break with three more points on the board is lost on no one. The inquest into the insipid Cardiff City defeat had been long and searching, but the end result of this first phase of the season is that Sunderland are on track to break 60 points, a more than solid return that would secure their mid-table safety.

For Mowbray, it is some welcome breathing space after a testing period in which finding the right balance for his side has been a challenge in each and every game.

He has never been able to select Dan Ballard; Ross Stewart only for one game. You could make a strong case that really, his tenure as Sunderland head coach has barely even got started.

Sunderland have made it to the break just about where they need to be - and having come through some significant challenges.

With key players potentially back the pressure and the expectation will inevitably rise, but so too will the competition and the variety in the squad: It's the moment Mowbray has been waiting for.