SUNDERLAND must not allow Darren Bent’s Stadium of Light return to distract them from securing their first back-to-back wins this season, according to Nicklas Bendtner.

Bent makes his first Aston Villa appearance at his old stamping ground tomorrow.

More than nine months have passed since his controversial departure, but time is unlikely to have been a great healer on the terraces.

Tomorrow’s game is of vital importance to Sunderland as they look to build on a morale-boosting win at Bolton Wanderers.

“I know it (Bent’s return) is something the fans are talking about,” said Bendtner, the latest striker asked to fill the hole he left. “It is important we as a team do not get swept up in any of that.

“When you look at the big teams, and they do not manage to play their best, they still work hard for each other, they still give 100%.

“That is why a lot of the time they seem to get the right result. That is what we have to do.

“If there is a game where we are not doing that well, we just have to stick together, be organised. Then you are difficult to break down.

“We still have a lot of new players here, but the more we play together the easier that will become.

“We will become a much tougher team to play against and beat.

“The result at Bolton will change the way it has been for us, that is the feeling I have.”

Bendtner is on a season-long loan from one of the Premier League’s “big teams” in Arsenal, and says he joined for similar reasons to those which brought Bent from Tottenham Hotspur.

He added: “You see a lot of big players coming here to join Sunderland and not so much at other clubs.