Super Eagles’ forward, Taiwo Awoniyi, was in his deadly form as he helped Frank Lampard’s Coventry City off the relegation zone after a 3-1 defeat of struggling Sunderland.

Both sides came into the game occupying the bottom two places in the table with just six goals scored each.

Coventry boss Lampard made four changes from last weekend’s defeat by Fulham, including dropping captain Matt Grimes, and it stirred a positive performance from his side.

They were helped by some poor defending from Sunderland as the Black Cats made a mess of a routine cross that saw the ball fall to Tatsuhiro Sakamoto for the opening goal in the 17th minute from the edge of the area.

Awoniyi then nicked the ball off Sunderland’s Luke O’Nien far too easily in the 37th minute before he scored via a deflection after coasting through the visitors’ defence and past some weak challenges.

Other than a decent opportunity for Brian Brobbey, which he fired wide, Sunderland were ineffective at the other end in the first half.

Their chances of getting back into the game were realistically ended just seven minutes into the second half when Rudoni’s shot deflected off Omar Alderete, who had stuck out a leg to try to block it, and it found the net.

Sunderland’s Chemsdine Talbi missed a good chance before the visitors were awarded a penalty after referee Simon Hooper took an age to review a handball by Coventry defender Ethan Pinnock, whose arm was up to block O’Nien’s shot.

Le Fee scored the resulting spotkick in the 67th minute, but there would be no stirring comeback from the Black Cats as they suffered their sixth defeat in nine league games.

Their misery was compounded by Alderete getting sent off in stoppage time for a second bookable offence when he tripped Rudoni.