Connor Wickham and Emanuele Giaccherini could not have picked a better moment to remind everyone of the adage about form being temporary but class permanent.

Between them the England Under-21 striker and the Italy winger cost Sunderland virtually £17m before being widely written off as embarrassingly expensive mistakes. How wrong can you be? In the past three games Wickham has scored five times, with three of those goals created by Giaccherini, who has also registered one himself.

Partly thanks to this duo, Sunderland hauled themselves out of the bottom three on Sunday, with Wickham's latest brace supplemented by Giaccherini's shot and Fabio Borini's penalty on a day when fine, courageous refereeing on Phil Dowd's part left Cardiff reduced to 10 men following Juan Cala's sending-off late in the first half. By the final whistle Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side had sunk to the bottom of the Premier League with survival looking highly unlikely.

For a man who, until this month, had scored only one Premier League goal in the three years following his £8.1m move from Ipswich, Wickham is clearly hellbent on making up for lost time.

His fourth goal in under two weeks arrived courtesy of a corner won by Adam Johnson and taken by Seb Larsson. When the ball bounced up off the ground, the striker was well positioned at the far post to sneak in front of Kévin Théophile-Catherine and direct a clever, technically extremely difficult, header into the opposite top corner.

After seeing far too many false Wearside dawns Gus Poyet refrained from celebrating; instead the Uruguayan stood still, sticking his hands deep in his pockets.

Sunderland's manager would have been quietly encouraged by the increasing effectiveness of Lee Cattermole and Jack Colback in central midfield. Colback especially made life tough for Gary Medel and when the Cardiff enforcer's challenge sent him crashing to earth it earned Medel a most unwelcome, style-cramping, booking.

The next card on display was red. As Wickham surged on to Colback's cute header and into the area Cala, the last defender, tugged the striker's shirt back. Creditably Wickham resisted the temptation to collapse in a heap, merely stumbling inside the area and leaving Dowd to play advantage.

Once that attacking move broke down the referee pointed to the penalty spot and flourished the red card. It was excellent officiating but the penalty still had to be converted. For the second successive weekend Borini stepped forward to the spot and for a second time the Liverpool loanee scored, on this occasion using his right foot to defy David Marshall, who dived the correct way but could not quite make a save.

Many among the almost 46,000 strong crowd probably had to pinch themselves. Supporting a Sunderland side who had last won a home Premier League game back in January, when Stoke City were narrowly defeated, is not a pursuit for the faint-hearted but this was turning into the equivalent of the sudden dawning of a gloriously hot sunny day amid a miserable, cold, wet summer.

Medel dropped back into a Cardiff back four which soon contained only two orthodox defenders. Solskjaer's need to gamble was such that he withdrew Fábio da Silva, by now in such a strop with himself and everybody else that another sending off probably beckoned.

On came Kenwyne Jones – and, for a while, Sunderland seemed horribly unsure of how to deal with Cardiff's 10 attack-minded men. Peter Whittingham gave Vito Mannone quite a fright after his free-kick took a deflection off the wall, the goalkeeper doing extremely well to adjust his position and repel the danger as, down in the dugout, a still anxious Poyet sighed with visible relief.

Time and options were fast running out for his friend in the adjacent technical area – the two managers forged a strong bond while studying for their coaching badges together – and Solskjaer quickly introduced Craig Bellamy.

Wholesale booing greeted the former Newcastle United striker but another substitute swiftly stole the limelight. Giaccherini has endured a frustrating season since leaving Juventus for £8.7m but the Italy international easily gave Medel the slip before connecting with Borini's wonderfully intelligent pass and stroking a shot beyond Marshall.

Before Sunderland had collected four points from their previous two fixtures, at Manchester City and Chelsea, Poyet had appealed for "a miracle" and now he repeatedly punched the air with evangelistic fervour. It only intensified when Wickham subsequently headed Giaccherini's corner home. Maybe miracles really do happen.

Man of the match Connor Wickham (Sunderland)