Black Cats curse bad luck against Fulham
SUNDERLAND saw another yet lead slip through their fingers as they lost at promotion contenders Fulham – but this time they were not guilty of shooting themselves in the foot.
For a fifth successive game, the Black Cats took the lead but could not hang on to it, with 12 points having now gone to waste.
They led through a first-half strike from birthday boy Joel Asoro – who turned 19 yesterday – only for referee Peter Bankes to suffer a brain fade just before the break, somehow failing to award a penalty when Ovie Ejaria was fouled inside the area by Tim Ream.
And less than a minute later the home side hit them on the break and equalised through Lucas Piazon.
On-loan Newcastle United striker Aleksandar Mitrovic headed Fulham’s winner from a set-piece 15 minutes from the end.
But it was Bankes and his assistants who were culpable once more as they failed to spot that the Serb was offside.
Those blunders denied Sunderland a last chance to complete a League double this season, but it meant little in terms of the Black Cats’ overall situation as their relegation to League One was confirmed last weekend.
As for Fulham, they moved back into the automatic promotion positions but Cardiff City will still clinch second spot ahead of them if they win both their remaining games.
Asoro’s inclusion was one of three changes Sunderland’s exFulham player and manager Chris Coleman made to the side that started last weekend’s defeat against Burton Albion.
Two of those changes were forced on him by injury, with Ejaria and Ethan Robson replacing Aiden McGeady and Lee Cattermole, while Asoro came in for Callum McManaman.
Coleman also included 16-year-old midfielder Bali Mumba on the bench for the first time.
Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic named the same starting XI for the fourth successive game, with their last outing seeing them win 3-0 at play-off hopefuls Millwall a week ago.
Sunderland put in a strong first-half performance, allowing Fulham to dominate possession but largely keeping them at arm’s length. Asoro and Ashley Fletcher both fired wide in the early stages, while at the other end Jason Steele fingertipped a cross-shot from Ryan Fredericks to safety.
But Sunderland took the lead on 28 minutes when Fletcher’s header found Asoro and he turned Matt Targett just outside the penalty area, with his low shot beating Marcus Bettinelli and finding the bottom lefthand corner.
Sunderland were then denied a clear-cut penalty on 44 minutes when the referee missed Ream’s clumsy trip on Ejaria.
And just a minute later Bankes’ calamitous non-decision took on even greater significance as Fredericks reached the byline on the right and his low cross was missed by Mitrovic at the near post, only to run through for the unmarked Piazon to level at the far post.
Fulham stepped it up in the second half and laid siege to the Sunderland goal for long spells.
Mitrovic brought a good save out of Steele just before the hour, and then Tom Cairney curled a shot just wide of the left-hand post a couple of minutes later.
But Sunderland did not heed those warnings, and when Stefan Johansen delivered a free-kick into the box from the right, Mitrovic peeled away from Fletcher at the far post to head down with the ball bouncing into the top left-hand corner – although replays showed the Fulham man was in fact offside.
Steele then made another fine save to push a goal-bound Johansen set-piece round the post in the final ten minutes.
But Sunderland never looked likely to get an equaliser, and Fulham were able to see the game out and earn the win they needed to stay in the promotion hunt.