Blackburn’s revival is under way at last, with a second successive league win taking them into mid-table comfort at the expense of Wigan, who fought back once in this game yet have still to display the steel necessary to climb the table.

All three goals came from set pieces, and there was precious little football beyond that, which will not be a worry for Sam Allardyce but just might be beginning to bother Roberto Martinez and his employers. Blackburn have long known how to escape trouble. Wigan appear in danger of forgetting.

After hitting the post through Niko Kalinic as early as the fifth minute, Blackburn took the lead midway through the first half. Brett Emerton floated a free-kick into the danger area near the penalty spot, and though Wigan’s new goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic came out to punch clear, the ball went straight to Morten Gamst Pedersen, who returned it with interest from the edge of the area.

Wigan had begun promisingly enough with Hugo Rodallega fashioning a chance for himself in the opening minute, though the striker quickly became isolated as Blackburn pushed the visitors’ midfield further back. As half-time approached Wigan were only threatening from set pieces, and when Rodallega did manage to curl a free-kick into the gap between Paul Robinson and his back line Paul Scharner managed to duck under it when any sort of contact seemed likely to bring a goal.

When Wigan equalised just before the hour it was from another set piece, this time a corner, though as Ryan Nelsen had conceded it by flinging himself bravely in the way of a thunderous Rodallega shot it could be argued the visitors had pressurised the Blackburn defence. James McCarthy sent over a cross from the left that was too high for Scharner at the near post, but possibly distracted by the Austrian’s leap Robinson and his defence stood still and allowed Gary Caldwell to score his first for Wigan with a stooping header.

Blackburn hit the bar shortly afterwards, Pedersen getting on the end of Emerton’s cross but making contact with his shoulder as well as his head. Even so he came within inches of again beating Stojkovic, who had not looked convincing all night under crosses. It was another cross and another set piece that finally earned Blackburn the points, Wigan losing concentration at a Pedersen corner and letting the unmarked Kalinic scored the simplest of winners.

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In much the same way that ice-bound north-east roads refuse to thaw, there seems no end in sight to Sunderland’s bleak mid-winter. Steve Bruce’s suddenly fragile side have now gone seven games without a win and were arguably lucky not to lose here against an initially sluggish Blackburn who grew stronger as the afternoon unravelled.

A raft of injuries deprived Bruce of Andy Reid, Lee Cattermole, Kieran Richardson, John Mensah and Anton Ferdinand, thereby dictating that 20-year-old David Meyler, signed from Cork City by Roy Keane, finally made his first senior start. Meyler proved quietly competent in central midfield, showing off some intelligent movement and even finding the time to chest down a high ball and send a first-half volley swerving narrowly wide.

Similar highlights were frustratingly few and far between with the opening period’s principal drama focused on the sometimes abrasive central midfield sub-plot featuring Lorik Cana’s duel with Blackburn’s Steve Nzonzi. A typical cameo occurred when Nzonzi – aka Ewood Park’s answer to Patrick Vieira – accidentally caught the Albania captain in the face and Cana retaliated by barging into his unimpressed adversary.

Perhaps inspired by his co-midfielder’s uncompromising approach, Meyler wellied late into Morten Gamst Pedersen with a Keane-esque tackle and promptly earned a booking. The sense of minor grievance stemming from that little incident seemed to inspire Blackburn, sparking a period of concerted, set-piece punctuated, home pressure which saw Keith Andrews direct a right-foot shot from outside the area intended for the top corner fractionally off target.

Not that there was exactly a surfeit of excitement on a day when both teams craved the sort of imagination and invention customarily supplied by Blackburn’s injured David Dunn and Sunderland’s Reid.

Rovers fans seem reasonably satisfied with the job Sam Allardyce is performing here but, even so, there is still plenty of nostalgia in these parts for the Mark Hughes era. If Manchester City fans do not appear overly exercised by the former Blackburn manager’s sacking, Ewood regulars are convinced it was a terrible mistake.

Pedersen has largely looked such a shadow of his former self under Allardyce that he has been dubbed “The Ghost”. The Norway winger still boasts a trick or two, though, and, almost immediately after Darren Bent had given Sunderland the lead, Pedersen wrong-footed Phil Bardsley down the left transferred the ball from his preferred left to his right foot and defied Marton Fulop – who arguably should have done better – with a shot which went in off a post.

The joke doing the rounds in the north-east at the moment is that Bruce has banned his players from owning dogs as “they cannot hold onto leads”. Sure enough Pedersen’s equaliser highlighted a worrying Wearside trend.

Sunderland had rarely looked like scoring until – helped on by the leg of Chris Samba – Bent lashed home his 12th goal of the season following a goalmouth scramble occasioned by Daryl Murphy’s cross and Paul Robinson’s parry.

Undeterred by seeing his side’s lead wiped out, Bent merely dusted himself down and scored a distinctly superior second. Connecting with Jordan Henderson’s offside-defying through pass, the striker advanced to the edge of the area from where his low shot proved far too good for Robinson. Bent’s name has not always been synonymous with poise but this was a wonderfully composed finish.

Unfortunately for Bruce it was insufficient to win the game. El Hadji Diouf, newly on the pitch as part of a triple attacking substitution on Allardyce’s part, swiftly rose to head a Pascal Chimbonda cross beyond Fulop with Nyron Nosworthy the defender most culpable. The fact that Diouf and Chimbonda left Sunderland under considerable clouds last January hardly enhanced the mood of visitors who have now won just once in 12 games.

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