When Bent won a penalty at the start of the second-half of this game he handed Jones the ball rather than take it himself – the ace penalty-taker accepting his strike partner could do with a morale-boosting goal.
Bent's lack of ego allowed Jones t
o get on the scoresheet, and may just have cemented a bond of appreciation which will see this partnership genuinely flourish.
But it still didn't stop it being the wrong thing to do.
With the game so evenly-balanced at 1-0 to the home team, it was a pivotal moment in the game, and with Bent the master from the spot, Jones should never have had a sniff.
"It was a good job Kenwyne scored," growled an unamused Bruce afterwards, revealing he planned to carpet both players today and make sure such a thing never happens again.
But if Bent's decision seemed a little bizarre, it was perfectly in keeping with a crazy sort of game.
Seven goals, two penalties, another not given, two own goals, the craziest of back-passes and a free-kick on Sunderland's six-yard box told only half the story in a game in which anything seemed likely to happen.
Wolves started well, but fell behind in the seventh minute when Segundo Castillo tripped Darren Bent in the box.
Replays showed the midfielder might have got a toe on the ball, but the challenge was awkward, and from referee Lee Mason's vantage point there was only one decision.
Bent picked himself up and drilled home the perfect penalty.
Wolves were bloodied but unbowed by the early setback, and there were chances for both sides as the game unfolded.
Former Sunderland defender Greg Halford hit a free-kick into Craig Gordon's arms.
The erratic Steed Malbranque saw a 14th-minute volley blocked wide, and in the 25th minute a Matt Jarvis cross was headed narrowly wide by David Edwards.
But the key moment of the opening 45 minutes came on the half-hour, when a cross came in from the right and Sunderland centre-half Michael Turner bulldozed through Kevin Doyle inside the penalty area.
There was no attempt to play the ball and the referee should have pointed to the spot, but Mr Mason chose to let it go.
It could have been 1-1, but within a couple of minutes it could just as easily have been 3-0 to Sunderland – Hennessey denying Jones, Michael Mancienne blocking a sure-to-score Cattermole.
Bent was unlucky not to get his second in the 38th minute – denied by a bold Hennessey when clean through on goal – Sunderland had been at sixes and sevens from that point on, and livewire Andrew Keogh was literally just a couple of inches wide from a Jarvis cross on the stroke of half-time.
Salvation seemed to have come for Sunderland in the shape of that second-half penalty, just two minutes after the restart.
For the second time in the game, Malbranque crossed in and Bent went down in the box, but this time there was no questioning the referee's decision – centre-half Christophe Berra having lost Bent in the area and caught the Sunderland striker's leg as he tried to recover the situation.
Jones drove the penalty just to the left of Hennessey as the keeper moved right, and you might have thought that was game over.
But Wolves showed tremendous spirit, and within 10 minutes they were level.
They needed a little luck to pull one back in the 49th minute.
From a clumsy goalmouth scrap, Keogh found Berra in space left of goal, and the defender's close-range effort was beaten out by Scottish international team-mate Gordon, only to strike John Mensah inside the six-yard box and rocket into goal.
Wolves got a helping hand for their equaliser in the 55th minute – Kieran Richardson's overhit backpass needed to be palmed away by Gordon to prevent a second own-goal inside five minutes, but the save was made at the expense of a free-kick directly in front of Sunderland's goal on the six-yard box.
Karl Henry's initial effort was blocked on a crowded goal-line, but Kevin Doyle followed up to hook the loose ball just inside Gordon's right-hand post.
With the scores level both teams took stock, but it was Sunderland who emerged with more purpose when the game got going again, regaining the lead in the 70th minute.
A long punt from Turner was chested back by Bent towards Jones, who drove a diagonal ball across Hennessey and into the bottom right-hand corner of the keeper's goal.
It was perfect placement, and finishing of equally high quality was served up by Turner in the 73rd after a fine Bent shot had been beaten out for a corner by Hennessey.
Reid put in the corner from the left, and Turner's run from deep lost marker Berra, the Sunderland defender glancing in a header from the penalty spot.
Wolves went close in the 75th minute to setting up a stunning finale – Halford glancing a header goalwards, only for Richardson to head off the line.
Sunderland killed the game in the 90th minute with another breakaway goal – Malbranque playing in Bent, whose shot from right of goal was deflected just inside Hennessey's left-hand post by Mancienne's outstretched boot.
Bruce made it clear that he was disappointed with so much of Sunderland's defending, which he found slack and sloppy.
However, with four wins out of five games at home this season, he can only be happy with the way his team is performing at the Stadium of Light.
