Late goals from Tobias Hysen and David Connolly earned Sunderland a richly deserved win at Leicester.

The Black Cats were well on top throughout but, largely due to an impressive performance from home goalkeeper Paul Henderson, they had to wait until the 79th minute to take the lead, when Hysen turned the ball in after Daryl Murphy hit the crossbar.

The visitors were buoyed by that and four minutes later Connolly prodded home a second after Murphy was again thwarted, this time by Henderson.

The Foxes, whose manager Rob Kelly made six changes to his starting XI, lacked ideas and fledgling strike-partnership Matty Fryatt and Chris O'Grady lived off scraps.

Although Leicester had only lost one of their previous five matches, they struggled to find any rhythm and Darren Ward had a quiet afternoon in the Sunderland goal.

After a scrappy start, Connolly had the first sight of goal, flashing a shot narrowly wide with a couple of minutes gone.

And a minute later, Hysen was also off target from a Stephen Elliott cross.

The visitors continued to create opportunities, with Liam Miller having a thumping strike blocked, but O'Grady's persistence finally created an opening at the other end, leaving Levi Porter to slice his shot wide from 15 yards.

The Black Cats went close twice in the 18th minute, when a Dean Whitehead cross flew across Leicester's six-yard box and Connolly was just blocked by Henderson when the ball was pumped back in.

With 25 minutes gone, Connolly latched onto Chris Brown's flick and Henderson made another scrambling save from the striker's 25-yard drive.

Hysen scuffed an effort from distance and Henderson again denied Connolly, who almost lobbed the Foxes goalkeeper at full stretch from Dwight Yorke's precise pass.

Half-time did not change the one way traffic and when Leicester failed to clear a Miller corner three minutes after the restart, Henderson pushed away Stanislav Varga's strike.

With 10 minutes of the second half gone, Elliott found Connolly and the striker's low drive was turned around the post by the Leicester goalkeeper.

Gareth Williams blasted a free-kick well off target and O'Grady also drilled wide either side of the hour.

Shortly afterwards Danny Cadamarteri came on for his Leicester debut and Patrick Kisnorbo just failed to get a touch on Porter's curling free-kick.

Hysen missed after being played through by Connolly before Leicester's Fryatt failed to hit the target from an Iain Hume pass.

With just over 11 minutes remaining, Sunderland finally made the breakthrough.

Whitehead's cross was met by a thumping Murphy header that was kept out by the crossbar. When the ball fell to Hysen he made no mistake from close range.

Connolly made it two soon after, turning the ball home after Henderson had saved from Murphy.

Miller should have widened the gap further with three minutes left but Sunderland were comfortable winners and the final whistle was met with boos from the Leicester fans.

Teams:

Leicester Henderson, Stearman, McCarthy, Kisnorbo, Kenton,Hughes, Wesolowski (Cadamarteri 62), Williams, Porter, Fryatt,O'Grady (Hume 62).

Subs Not Used: Logan, Tiatto, Maybury.

Booked: Kenton.

Sunderland Ward, Whitehead, Varga, Nyatanga, Wallace,Stephen Elliott, Yorke (Leadbitter 60), Miller,Hysen (Hartley 84), Brown (Murphy 59), Connolly.

Subs Not Used: Fulop, Welsh.

Booked: Whitehead.

Goals: Hysen 79, Connolly 83.

Att: 21,975

Ref: S Mathieson (Cheshire).