Fulham 1 Sunderland 3
Scorers: Fulham - Healy (73m); Sunderland - Collins (44m), Chopra (53m), Jones (75m)
Craven Cottage
Attendance: 25,053
Barclays Premier League
Saturday April 5, 2008

Sunderland gave themselves a ten point cushion from safety thanks to a convincing 3-1 win against relegation haunted Fulham this afternoon.

Roy Keane brought back Michael Chopra into his starting XI in place of Michael Chopra in the only change from the side that beat West Ham 2-1 at the Stadium of Light last weekend.

Sunderland started off well, but it was the hosts who managed the first decent chance of the game, when Brian McBride headed in Jimmy Bullard's cross straight at Craig Gordon after 12 minutes, before Bullard himself managed a shot on goal a few minutes later.

A foul from Fulham's Danny Murphy gave Kieran Richardson a free kick on the quarter hour mark, which Danny Collins headed in past Kasey Keller - only for the referee to rule the goal out for an apparent foul by the Welshman.

After having the goal chalked off, Sunderland did keep pushing forward, although crosses from Carlos Edwards and Andy Reid were being cleared away by Fulham's back four, as Danny Collins saw another header go wide from Reid's corner.

Collins finally found the back of the net at the end of the first half, when a half cleared corner fell to Daryl Murphy, whose cross found the Welsh left back, as he nodded the ball past Keller to give us a lead going into half time.

Michael Chopra came on at half time for Carlos Edwards, and the second half wasn't even ten minutes old when he added his name to the scoresheet, when he raced onto a Kenwyne Jones flick-on to volley the ball past Keller to give us a two-goal cushion.

Fulham started coming at us after going two-down, with a Collins foul handing Jimmy Bullard a free kick, which was cleared by the Welshman, before he blocked a shot from substitute David Healy.

Healy did pull a goal back on 73 minutes when he curled a 25 yard shot past Gordon - but the Lads restored that two-goal cushion two minutes later when Kenwyne Jones found the corner of the net following a through ball from Dean Whitehead.

Fulham didn't really do much in the remaining quarter of an hour to get back into the game, as the home fans streamed out, fully accepting the result which could well send the Cottagers down into the Championship next season.

Sunderland: Gordon, Bardsley, Evans, Nosworthy, Collins, Edwards (sub 46, Chopra), Whitehead, Reid, K Richardson (sub 56, Leadbitter), Murphy (sub 86, O'Donovan), Jones. Subs: Fulop, Higginbotham.

Fulham: Keller, Stalteri (sub 61, Dempsey), Hughes, Hangeland, Konchesky, Andreasen (sub 56, Healy), Davies, Murphy, Bullard, McBride, Kamara (sub 71, Bouazza). Subs: Warner, Bocanegra.