Bruce upset over Bent charity

Premier League side Sunderland’s boss Steve Bruce was not a happy man after leading scorer Darren Bent handed his penalty-taking job over to Kenwyne Jones.

The former Tottenham striker had already converted a ninth-minute spot-kick when he won a second three minutes into the second half.

However, with Jones pleading for the ball, he handed it over and the Trinidad and Tobago international duly dispatched it.

Bruce, whose side went on to beat Wolves 5-2, did not see the incident because he does not watch penalties, but he was not impressed when assistant Eric Black had told him what had happened.

He said: “I have this stupid, daft superstition that I don’t watch them. As long as he scored, I suppose.

“But that won’t happen again. That’s the mentality that we have to change. We don’t just throw the ball to somebody else because he wants to score a goal.

“That’s something you do on a pitch with your mates, not in the Premier League.

“We have got one of the best penalty-takers in the country in Darren, so that won’t happen again, that’s for sure.

“There would have been absolute hell to pay if he had missed. It’s not right.

“Okay, if you are 5-0 up or 6-0 up or whatever, but it was an important part of the game and we have got a top, top-class penalty-taker who has never missed one, I don’t think, in his career, throwing the ball away.”

Bruce’s displeasure was eased by a result which took his side to 12 points from their first seven games.

If the scoreline slightly flattered the home side, there was no doubting their potency in front of goal as they scored five in a game for the first time since they clinched the Championship title at Luton in 2007.

They looked to be cruising, despite the visitors’ best efforts, at 2-0.

However, Wolves were right back in the game with 55 minutes gone when, after John Mensah had put through his own goal, Kevin Doyle fired home from close range after keeper Craig Gordon had been penalised for handling Kieran Richardson’s wayward back-pass.

But Jones blasted the Wearsiders back in front with 20 minutes remaining, and Michael Turner’s header and Bent’s late shot, which Michael Mancienne turned into his own goal, saw them home.

Bruce joked: “Here’s me thinking Darren had scored a hat-trick. I had to be told.

“I don’t think we can make any sense of it [the game], it was one of those crazy ones.

“I suppose if you are a neutral, it was a decent spectacle; if you are a manager today, it’s a bit surreal.”

Bent revealed why he let Jones take Sunderland’s second penalty.

The former Tottenham forward explained on Sky Sports 1: “It’s always nice to have all the strikers firing on all cylinders and I saw the way he (Jones) looked at me like he was going to kill me.”

Asked if his superb start to the season will have attracted the attention of England manager Fabio Capello, Bent added: “I’d like to think so but there’s a lot of good strikers in this country. If I keep going I might get a look-in.”

Jones added: “We were leading comfortably but had two lapses of concentration that led to them coming back but you saw the character of the boys today.

“Today was massive for us because we have two of the big boys next (Manchester United and Liverpool).”