Bent´s debut strike gives Sunderland winning start

Sunderland striker Darren Bent enjoyed a debut to remember as he scored the goal that gave his new side a 1-0 win against Bolton on Saturday.

Black Cats boss Steve Bruce paid a club record 10 million pounds to sign Bent from Tottenham earlier this month and the England international began to repay that fee with an impressive display at the Reebok Stadium.

He dispatched Steed Malbranque’s cross with a far-post header in the fifth minute to ensure Bruce made a winning start to his reign.

Bent, 25, recently made the headlines for the wrong reasons after he used the Twitter website to publicly criticise Tottenham and express his desire to join Sunderland.

The former Charlton star eventually got his wish and, along with fellow new recruits Lee Cattermole and Lorik Cana, gave Sunderland a more dynamic look than the drab outfit that just avoided relegation last season.

Bolton had plenty of new faces as well as Sam Ricketts, Paul Robinson, Zat Knight and Sean Davis all made their debuts.

But Sunderland were soon celebrating as they opened the scoring inside the fifth minute with a classic header from Bent.

George McCartney found Malbranque in the left channel and he flighted in a wicked cross to the far post, where Bent rose above Robinson to plant a firm header past Jussi Jaaskelainen.

The visiting fans celebrated wildly but they were almost silenced moments later when Fabrice Muamba sliced a fierce 20-yard shot wide of Marton Fulop’s goal.

Cattermole seemed to cover every blade of grass for the visitors and twice within the space of as many minutes Sunderland could have scored.

In the 20th minute, Bent and Malbranque combined to send Kieran Richardson clear through on goal but Jaaskelainen raced off his line to parry the midfielder’s left-foot shot from 14 yards.

Sunderland pressed again moments later when a vicious low cross from Richardson found Bent at the far post and he swivelled before driving a low left-foot shot inches wide of the far post with Jaaskelainen beaten.

Bolton handed a debut to South Korea midfielder Lee Chung-Yong a debut in the 67th minute when he replaced former Sunderland midfielder Gavin McCann.

The home side pressed more as the match wore on and Fulop emerged the hero in injury-time when Sean Davis drove goalwards from 14 but saw the keeper deny him with a brilliant save.