Phil Smith's Sunderland AFC verdict: Inside the loss prompting more big questions about this season and beyond

A reunion with Tony Mowbray, a sell-out crowd and a season poised finely meant that this had long been marked out as the potential to be a lively afternoon.

By the end, it had drifted towards the outright surreal. After Birmingham’s second-half comeback the atmosphere in the home stands was giddy, and as Mowbray headed for the edge of the tunnel he saw an object fly towards his feet. A security guard stooped and collected the gift, passing it to Mowbray who then lifted it as if it were the FA Cup itself. It was a packet of revels.

His opposite number was by now long gone, at this point still entirely unaware of the storm that was about to engulf him. Beale had ten minutes earlier stod impassive as Trai Hume tried to shake his hand upon leaving the pitch, a bad look on an afternoon that was going from bad to worse. Beale was genuinely taken aback when asked what had happened afterwards, insisting that he had not seen the defender and then later taking to social media to issue an apology and an ode to his dedication - Hume had come through a late fitness test and played through the pain barrier to deliver another tenacious performance.

The two scenes painted a picture of two clubs in very different places, belying their respective positions in the table and their current ambitions. Put simply, one was having a lot of fun and the other most definitely was not. 

This is life in the Championship to an extent, where form and therefore mood fluctuates widely and there can often be not a great deal between a huge batch of teams in the table. And yet with thirteen games to go it does not feel like hyperbole to say that Sunderland’s season and play-off ambitions are beginning to hang like the finest of threads. Swansea City visit the Stadium of Light next weekend and then after that it is Norwich City, Leicester City and Southampton - three games that right now this Sunderland side looks ill-equipped for and particularly the two on the road. 

Beale told his players on Friday to stay within touching distance of the top six by the time of March international break but another inconsistent performance undermined how rapidly they will have to improve to make that a reality. 

Sunderland had looked like a good side in the first half, even if the chances were relatively few and far between. They pressed well, forced errors from a nervous looking home side and found moments to play with flair, Jobe Bellingham excellent in this spell and Romaine Mundle exciting on full debut. In these moments you could almost see the vision which Beale is trying to implement, to make this side harder to beat, resilient out of possession and then devastating on the break. Though far less extreme, there were shades of that defeat to Stoke City a year ago as Sunderland waited for Mowbray’s side to play their way into trouble and then pounce.

It didn’t last. Birmingham used the interval to reset and take a breath, and with a little more calm they turned the game on its head. Koji Miyoshi drifted into the space between Sunderland’s midfielders and with the visitors packed tightly in central areas, he and his team-mates began to build the overloads out wide that had been there for the taking all along. While true that Anthony Patterson was hardly forced time and time again into significant saves, the final result did not feel like an unfair reflection of the game. 

Sunderland’s shortcomings were exposed again and at the vital stage of the season, the momentum feels to be shifting firmly against them. A coherent and convincing identity and level of performance looks further away now than it did when Mowbray left, and the patchy results reflect it. The pressure is quickly rising on Beale, who admitted afterwards that he has work to do after damaging back-to-back defeats. That's even before any potential fall out to the bizarre events of handshake gate.

With that the scrutiny also grows on those above him. After all, his struggles are to a large extent the club’s and not just his own, issues that were never going to be fixed with a change in the dugout alone. There has been cautious progress up front at times but nothing more than that, an issue that still threatens to fundamentally undermine this campaign as a whole. The core of the side who have carried this second promotion push were also key fixtures in last year’s team, with the recruitment from the summer onwards yet to yield major results in the main - at least at this stage.

And for all there were plenty of supporters who felt that Mowbray’s time on Wearside was drawing to a natural end, their decision right now has not delivered much in the way of positive results. Given the doubts that Mowbray faced internally over substitutions and tactical approach towards the end of his tenure, this second-half collapse was all the more damning as it was the hosts who continued to take control and turn the screw. Sunderland floundered, slow to react and ultimately failing to find a response. 

This season is far from over and there is more than enough talent in this squad to spark a revival, testament to so much of the good work that has gone on since the change of ownership. And yet drifting away from a buoyant St Andrews, the overwhelming was that this campaign is falling away and most sadly of all, something of the fun of the last 18 months has been lost. That should prompt some soul searching in the club’s corridor of power.