Darren Bent celebrated his move to Sunderland by opening his goalscoring account as Hearts were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw against the Barclays Premier League side.

The Jambos surged into the lead in style when David Obua opened the scoring with a lovely opportunist strike, before being pegged back when Sunderland's latest recruit found the back of the net shortly before the interval.

Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon was not risked as he continues his recovery from knee surgery, despite taking part in a pre-match warm-up.

Steve Bruce said: "It was good to see 'Benty' score a goal. It's always good to have your striker - who you have just paid a lot of money for - score a goal. For the whole game, he looked a threat.

"Overall, I was very pleased with the work-out. It was more like a cup-tie than a pre-season friendly, in the first half especially. That was good to see. The big thing for me is that we have come through the game unscathed.

"The best people for us today were the supporters, I've never seen a support like that for a pre-season friendly.

"It's quite an unbelievable following, I didn't think there would be enough seats in the stand. My job now is to get a team they enjoy watching."