Birmingham City 1, Sunderland 1.

FRANK Bruno will be the guest of honour at a St Andrew's sportsman's dinner tomorrow but, last night, it was Birmingham striker DJ Campbell that delivered a potentially knockout blow to Sunderland's hopes of automatic promotion to the Premiership.

Campbell, who scored twice for Brentford to dump the Black Cats out of last season's FA Cup, had only been on the pitch for seven minutes when he bundled home Rowan Vine's left-wing cross in the final 60 seconds of the game.

Carlos Edwards' scintillating 28th-minute strike had been no less than Sunderland had deserved for a dominant first-half display, and Birmingham appeared to be out for the count as the game entered its final stages.

But Campbell's last-gasp leveller - the first goal Sunderland had conceded in more than 450 minutes of Championship football - left the Wearsiders four points behind their opponents in the race for the Premiership.

The gloves are off as far as Sunderland's pursuit of an instant return to the top-flight is concerned, though, and while last night's dramatic denouement undoubtedly represented a setback ahead of Saturday's home game with leaders Derby, the extent of the Black Cats' previous dominance suggests they could yet stay the distance in the promotion battle.

Sunderland had appeared to be down and out when Keane replaced Niall Quinn in September, but the Irishman's impressive squad-building has reignited the possibility of an instant return to the top-flight.

The full extent of Keane's restructuring work was evident at St Andrew's, with eight of Sunderland's starting line-up not even on the club's books when Birmingham claimed all three points at the Stadium of Light in August.

Last night's line-up also boasted two changes from the side that had thrashed Southend at the weekend and, if the first was to be expected - Dwight Yorke returning to face opponents he left in controversial fashion two seasons ago - the second was rather more unexpected.

Anthony Stokes made his third Sunderland start since making a £2m move from Arsenal last month, but he did so on the left flank rather than in his preferred centre-forward berth.

The Irishman, who had filled the same slot when he made a match-winning intervention from the bench at Plymouth earlier this month, remained a threat all evening, drifting inside to run at a hesitant Birmingham defence and repeatedly seeking to thread balls through to a Sunderland strikeforce that blended aggression with invention from the off.

The bulky Stern John provided the former, with David Connolly chipping in with the latter, and the Republic of Ireland international twice came close to breaking the deadlock in the space of 60 first-half seconds.

He saw Blues goalkeeper Colin Doyle expertly tip a 12-yard effort around the post, before striking an acrobatic half-volley over the crossbar from close range after Edwards had exploited the home side's failure to clear the resultant corner.

With Birmingham struggling to get to grips with Sunderland's slick passing game, the visitors' early dominance was total and Yorke should have done better than direct a 26th-minute side-foot straight at Doyle after impressive hold-up play from John.

No matter. Just as it looked as though the rampant Wearsiders might pay for the veteran's profligacy, the third member of the Wearsiders' Trinidad & Tobago triumvirate was on hand to show his idol how to do it two minutes later.

Picking the ball up on the right flank, Edwards advanced towards the edge of the area unchallenged before unleashing a ferocious left-footed drive that arrowed into the top left-hand corner of the net.

It was a goal in keeping with Sunderland's sparkling first-half display - a team performance as good as anything they have produced all season - and suggested the former Luton winger is more than capable of illuminating the Premiership stage next season.

Sunderland need to get there first, of course, but if the paucity of their opponents' performance last night is anything to go by, Birmingham will not be standing in their way in the final ten weeks of the campaign.

Devoid of both energy and ideas, Steve Bruce's side barely threatened a visiting defence that was marshalled by the impressive Nyron Nosworthy, with a token long-range effort from Gary McSheffrey representing the sum of their first-half endeavour.

They improved after the interval, although Sunderland would have put the game to bed as early as the 48th minute had John not been in an offside position when he turned home Yorke's right-wing cross.

As it was, Birmingham's increased urgency began to cause their opponents problems, and the hosts would have grabbed an undeserved equaliser had Marton Fulop's reflexes not been razor sharp shortly before the hour mark.

The Hungary international had barely touched the ball before that stage, but he was still alert enough to block Sebastian Larsson's low strike with his legs after the former Arsenal midfielder had raced onto Mat Sadler's low centre.

Larsson was also at the heart of Birmingham's best move of the game shortly after, delivering a right-wing cross that enabled Niclas Bendtner to fashion a close-range stab that a backpedalling Nosworthy cleared off the line.

With Fabrice Muamba also firing a 25-yard piledriver narrowly over the crossbar, Sunderland suddenly found themselves under the cosh, although their fears had begun to ease by the time Stokes forced Doyle into a smart tip-over after ghosting between Birmingham's centre-halves.

Their pulses were racing again when McSheffrey curled a left-footed free-kick inches wide of the upright four minutes from time, and their growing concerns proved justified in the 90th minute.

Campbell didn't know a lot about his bundled effort from Vine's cross, but it was enough to see the ball loop beyond Fulop.