Kenwyne Jones rescued a point for ten-man Sunderland this afternoon, as Greg Halford's second half dismissal had looked to have killed the game for us.

Roy Keane made one change to his side, with Michael Chopra replacing Roy O'Donovan in the starting XI - while O'Donovan himself ended up losing his place on the bench after being injured in the warm up, and was replaced himself by Anthony Stokes.

Sunderland did start well, but it wasn't long before Fulham took control of the game, with a foul on Diomansy Kamara giving the Cottagers a free kick which saw Clint Dempsey come close to opening the scoring after four minutes, before David Healy missed an open goal from 20 yards out, after Danny Higginbotham and Craig Gordon got confused inside the penalty box, leaving the goal at the visitors' mercy.

Sunderland failed to muster any clear cut efforts on goal, with most of our attacking coming in the form of wayward crosses as Fulham's man-marking system saw our players crowded out whenever we were going forward. Simon Davies fired a warning to us on 27 minutes when his free kick produced another point-blank header from Dempsey - but four minutes later, Davies gave the visitors the lead without the aid of anyone's head. After Kamara won a free kick some 30 yards out from goal, the Welsh midfielder stepped up and blasted the ball into the top corner past a helpless Gordon.

Within minutes of that goal, Greg Halford earned a silly yellow card as we ended the first half on a low note, with Halford being affected again as he needed to go off for treatment after bloodying his nose in a clash with Dickson Etuhu's elbow as the pair chased to win the ball back for the Lads.

We looked a totally different side in the second half, although our attacks going forward were still breaking down, we weren't letting that affect our confidence, as Leadbitter saw a shot charged down, before Etuhu fired a header straight at goal following a Wallace corner. Fulham did threaten to double their lead, courtesy of another Davies free kick that caused some problems in the box, but we coped and looked to be finally getting a foothold in the game.

That is, until Halford was given his marching orders midway through the second half when referee Andre Marriner spotted Halford pulling back David Healy, earning the former Reading man his second yellow card of the game. At least it gave him more time to get treatment on his bloodied nose. Reduced to ten men, Sunderland did look a more organised team at times, and it coincided with a late flourish as we sought an equalising goal.

Kenwyne Jones provided the ball for Grant Leadbitter to have a pop on goal, although Antti Niemi was up to the midfielder's shot, but it was Jones who got the goal on 85 minutes, this time heading the ball home following a cross from Leadbitter to level things up. Even with ten men, we had chances to win it, with Stokes capitalising on a mistake from Elliot Omozusi, only to fire straight at Niemi's legs with nobody running on to get the rebound.

In the end, a point was just about a fair result, but if we'd played for the entire 90 minutes like we did for the final 15, we'd surely have won this one at a canter. Now, has anyone got a right back for next week...

Sunderland: Gordon, Halford (OFF 66), Nosworthy, Higginbotham, Collins, Leadbitter, Etuhu (sub 61, Stokes), Miller, Wallace (sub 71, Harte), Jones, Chopra (sub 61, Murphy). Subs: Ward, Connolly.

Fulham: Niemi, Omozusi, Hughes, Stefanovic, Bocanegra, Davies, Davis, Murphy, Dempsey, Kamara (sub 82, Ki-Hyeon), Healy (sub 69, Kuqi). Subs: Warner, Ashton, Smertin.