Premier League Sunderland eased through to round four of the FA Cup with Budweiser after a comfortable victory over Peterborough United at London Road in front of the live ITV cameras.

Seb Larsson had the first effort of the game, but he dragged his shot wide of the target.when well placed. Joe Lewis was called upon to make his first save of the game on 10 minutes, beating away Craig Gardner's long-range effort.

Tommy Rowe fired wide as Sunderland struggled to clear the first corner kick of the afternoon, which was well worked to the edge of the area. Paul Taylor was causing plenty of problems for the Sunderland defence and his forceful run took three defenders out of the game before he let fly, but his shot went wide of the target.

James Mclean struck the top of the crossbar with a fierce drive on 26 minutes as the visitors came close to breaking the deadlock. Lewis denied Gardner on the half hour as Sunderland tried to take advantage of their numerical advantage with Bennett off the pitch receiving treatment.

An ambitious strike from Kieran Richardson went well wide of the target as the first half drew to a close.

Half-time: Posh 0-0 Sunderland

Sunderland opened the scoring three minutes after the break as a free-kick from Seb LARSSON missed everybody and found the bottom corner with Lewis just failing to keep it out. Larsson came close to adding a second moments later, but Lewis made a smart save diving to his left.

The visitors doubled their lead on 58 minutes and it was another set-piece that undid the boy's in blue, one-time Posh target MCLEAN glancing home a corner kick past Lewis and into the back of the net.

Mark Little replaced Tommy Rowe on 64 minutes as Posh tried to freshen things up. Joe Newell replaced Emile SInclair while Sunderland also made changes as the game became a little bit uneventful with the visitors in control.

Substitute Won-Ji failed to finish after a good deep cross from Larsson as Sunderland pushed for a third as Posh struggled to create any opportunities in front of goal.

Final Score: Posh 0-2 Sunderland

Posh: Lewis, Alcock, Bennett, Zakuani, Wootton (sub Kearns 52min), Rowe (sub Little 64min), Tunnicliffe, Boyd, Taylor, Tomlin, Sinclair (sub Newell 71min). Unused subs: Jones, Thompson, Gordon-Hutton, Lawler.

Sunderland: Mignolet, Bardsley, Cattermole, Larsson, Gardner (sub Elmohamady 85min), Richardson, Kilgallon, Vaughan (sub Meyler 70min), O'Shea, Mclean, Sessegnon (sub Won-Ji 78min). Unused subs: Turner, Wickham, Westwood,  Noble.

Attendance: 8,975 (2,511 Sunderland fans)