Tony Mowbray reveals what happened to Dennis Cirkin in honest verdict on Birmingham City win

Tony Mowbray has praised Nectar Triantis' attitude after the central defender was thrown into the side just minutes before the 3-1 win over Birmingham City.

Triantis was pushed into the starting XI after Dennis Cirkin reported discomfort in his hamstring during the warm up, and played a key part in the second goal that helped Sunderland on the way to a hard-fought victory.

Cirkin will go for a scan on Sunday and while the hope is that the problem is not a serious one, Mowbray said it was huge for both Triantis and fellow Championship full debutant Jenson Seelt to play their part in the victory.

"Ultimately it's his hamstring," Mowbray said.

"He trained yesterday and said that he felt it after training. When he woke up this morning it felt fine, good - so we decided to push on.

"He then went and did the warm up and said he could feel it again, so we didn't want to risk it again. He'll go and have a scan tomorrow and we'll see what it is. It's obviously frustrating for us but great for Nectar, he's come in and played a part in the goal and helped the team win. I'm really pleased because he's an amazing young man. I don't know if he expected to come here and get straight in, but Ballard and O'Nien have done well and he's had to sit on the sidelines. He's played U21s games, we sent him on the bus to Southampton last week, seven hours each way and yet he does it with a smile on his face - he knows where he stands and what he's got to do.

"He's hopefully got a big future at this club. For him to get chucked in two minutes before kick off was amazing and I'm so happy for him, he's such a nice kid. Some people not in the team can moan, groan, sulk but this kid just wants to get better. After training he just wants a big bag of footballs, improve his right foot, left foot, his heading. I'm very happy for him."

An aggressive Birmingham City side caused Sunderland a lot of problems after a strong start from Mowbray's side, and the head coach says he was pleased that his team managed to come through a learning experience while still securing a valuable win.

The points took Sunderland back into the play-offs ahead of the 3pm kick offs.

"The team epitomised a young team today, we were so dominant for 30 minutes," Mowbray said.

"We could have been tree, four up but then it got slack, losing it in midfield, silly passes and letting them break. It's a trait of young footballers I think, thinking it's easy.

"I tried to highlight that at half time, you're all top players but top teams do it for 90 minutes, not 30 minutes and then be a liability - giving it away and not recovering quick enough.

"It's great that we can have a lesson like today while still getting a win and three points."