Stoke City 0, Sunderland 4
SUNDERLAND, Stoke (AP) Sunderland routed Stoke 4-0 on Sunday to end its wait for a Premier League victory this season while inflicting the visitors' first loss of the campaign.
Titus Bramble's first goal for Sunderland and Jonathan Woodgate's own goal put the hosts 2-0 up against fifth-place Stoke after 11 minutes.
Craig Gardner added the third with a deflected strike in the 28th and Sweden winger Sebastian Larsson rounded off the victory with a 58th-minute free kick.
The victory eased the pressure on under-fire Sunderland manager Steve Bruce, whose team had only picked up two points from its first four games.
``It's nice to get a victory,'' Sunderland assistant manager Eric Black said. ``Any victory in the Premier League is great, but under the circumstances he (Bruce) has had to deal with personally - because he is from this area as well - I think he will be quite happy.''
Stoke had won two and drawn two before the match at the Stadium of Light but was a clear second best against Sunderland, three days after an energy-sapping draw away to Dynamo Kiev in the Europa League.
``We are very, very unfortunate in some respects that every time we play in Europe, the next game is away from the Britannia Stadium,'' Stoke manager Tony Pulis said.
