Darren Bent revealed why he let Kenwyne Jones take Sunderland's second penalty in their 5-2 win over Wolves.

The Black Cats looked to be coasting when Jones converted a 48th-minute penalty to add to the one Bent had scored nine minutes into the game.

John Mensah's own goal and a 55th-minute equaliser from Kevin Doyle dragged the visitors right back into the game, but Jones' long-range strike, Michael Turner's header and a late own goal from Michael Mancienne saw the Wearsiders home.

Bent explained on Sky Sports 1: "It's always nice to have all the strikers firing on all cylinders and I saw the way he (Jones) looked at me like he was going to kill me."

Asked if his superb start to the season will have attracted the attention of England manager Fabio Capello, Bent added: "I'd like to think so but there's a lot of good strikers in this country. If I keep going I might get a look-in."

Jones added: "We were leading comfortably but had two lapses of concentration that led to them coming back but you saw the character of the boys today.

"Today was massive for us because we have two of the big boys next (Manchester United and Liverpool)."

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce admitted his side were flattered by the scoreline.

"We go from the ridiculous to the sublime but the one thing we've got is a threat up front. It got us out of jail today," he told Sky Sports 1.

"Defensively we have to improve because there are times when we go into meltdown. We give the ball away too often.

We will work on it and have to get better because there is a big expectation here.

"It was never 5-2, we have to be honest. We're delighted we have three points but at times there were alarming mistakes we made."

Asked about Jones taking the second penalty, Bruce added: "It's a good job he scored, it won't be happening again that's for sure."

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy felt Sunderland's third goal decided the game.

"I think we got stretched, we had the game by the scruff of the neck then and our two centre-backs didn't deal with the first ball, and that really is the difference," the former Sunderland boss said.

"We really played well, I thought we could win it at 2-2 and I think we deserved something from the game."