Stiliyan Petrov scored one goal and set up another as Aston Villa twice threw away the lead at Sunderland.

The Bulgarian midfielder gave Villa the lead with a spectacular opener in the 20th minute before Connor Wickham pulled one back seven minutes before half-time.

Petrov picked out Richard Dunne with a free-kick in the 85th minute which the Republic of Ireland international headed home but Villa could not hold on to the lead as Stephan Sessegnon stole in to nod home four minutes later.

Alex McLeish made one change from the team which lost against West Brom as Emile Heskey came into Villa’s starting line-up for Barry Bannan who was suspended by the club earlier in the week following his arrest by police for an alleged drink driving incident.

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce kept faith with the same team which claimed a 2-0 win over Bolton at the Reebok Stadium last weekend.

Darren Bent was given a hostile reception by the home supporters as the teams came out with banners in the home end which read ‘You lied’ and ‘It’s a money old game’.

The striker almost silence the Black Cats in the 16th minute though when Gabby Agbonlahor whipped a ball in from the left to the back post towards Bent but his shot was blocked by Kieran Richardson.

It gave the visitors confidence and they took the lead in spectacular fashion four minutes later with a fine edge-of-the-box strike from Petrov.

Agbonlahor played a cross-field pass to Alan Hutton on the right and the Scotland full-back jinked back inside to lay the ball off to Petrov who struck an unstoppable left-footed shot which flew past Simon Mignolet in the Sunderland goal.

Sunderland came close to equalising shortly afterwards when Nicklas Bendter curled a ball from the edge of the box but Michael Turner was unable to test Given as his header went wide.

The hosts were level in the 38th minute, though, when the lively Sessegnon showed clever feet to slip a superb ball between James Collins and Stephen Warnock to Connor Wickham who smashed a low shot across Given into the corner.

After a subdued start to the second half the match came back to life in the 70th as both sides went close to scoring in a frantic five-minute period.

Chris Herd fouled Bendtner on the corner of the box and Sebastian Larsson brought a fine save out of Given with a curling effort that seemed destined from the top-left corner.

Bent then had a golden opportunity after he played a neat one-two with Agbonlahor but substitute goalkeeper Keiren Westwood, who had come on for the injured Mignolet, narrowed the angle to make a brave block.

Villa regained the lead when Petrov delivered a free-kick, after Larsson had fouled Agbonlahor, into the penalty area in the 85th minute which Richard Dunne powerfully headed home.

But the claret and blues could not hold on to the lead and conceded from a set-piece again when Sessegnon headed past Given from close range with one minute of normal time remaining.