An injury time strike by Stern John led to a dramatic finish in the English Premier League match between Birmingham City and Sunderland at St Andrews Stadium on Wednesday.

Birmingham led twice in a game that saw three goals in the final 15 minutes but were forced to share the points with Sunderland. An own goal by Paul McShane had given Birmingham the lead in the first half but Sunderland pulled by thanks to a great goal in the second half by Michael Chopra. The home side regained the lead through substitute Garry O'Connor before John's dramatic equalizer in the dying minutes of the match.

Sunderland started the game with four changes to the starting line up that had defeated Tottenham on the opening day of the season. Chopra got his first start in a Sunderland shirt while Danny Collins replaced Kieran Richardson.

After an uneventful first half an hour, Birmingham took the lead in the 28th minute when Stephen Kelly header took a wicked deflection off McShane and into the net past a helpless Craig Gordon. Two minutes later the home side had a great chance of doubling the lead when Mikael Forssell snatched possession from Nyron Nosworthy but was unable to hit the target.

With Sunderland unable to break down the Birmingham defense, Keane made a double substitution in the 58th minute, bringing on John in place of David Connolly and replacing Dean Whitehead with Liam Miller. Keane made his final substitution in the 70th minute by sending Roy O'Donovan in place of Greg Halford.

Sunderland finally equalized in the 75th minute when Chopra hit a stinging left foot drive from 18-yards out and drove into the goal. However Birmingham regained the lead seven minutes later when substitute Garry O'Connor reached a superb through ball from Forssell, beat McShane and smashed home the ball past Gordon.

Sunderland were reduced to 10 men when Carlos Edwards limped off the field with a hamstring problem. Just when it looked like Birmingham had done enough to claim all three points, Stern John scored a dramatic equalizer following a goal mouth scramble.

Wallace's free kick took a deflection but was saved brilliantly by Colin Doyle. However the ball went straight to Nosworthy who headed it across the face of the goal and John was left with a simple header into an open goal. After the match Bruce expressed his displeasure at the referee claiming that Doyle was obstructed by a number of Sunderland players.

Sunderland will look to maintain its impressive start to the season when they visit Wigan Athletic on Saturday while Birmingham City will look for their first win of the campaign against West Ham United on August 18. You can watch live Premiership action here on free-football.tv.