Black Cats pick up vital points

Sunderland registered their first English Premier League away win since February and ended a run of five games without victory by overcoming 10-man Fulham 3-1 on Sunday.

Brede Hangeland was sent off for Fulham after half-an-hour, but although Steven Fletcher's opener for the visitors was cancelled out by Mladen Petric, goals from Carlos Cuellar and Stephane Sessegnon gave Sunderland the win.

With 10 goals to their name, Martin O'Neill's side are no longer the lowest-scoring team out of England's 92 league clubs.

Victory lifted the Black Cats above Wigan Athletic into 15th place, three points above the relegation zone, while Fulham remain ninth.

Straight red

Dimitar Berbatov headed wide from Damien Duff's cross after five minutes at Craven Cottage, but the first half was a sleepy affair until Hangeland was sent off by referee Lee Probert.

The Norwegian was shown a straight red card for jumping in two-footed on Lee Cattermole - himself no stranger to full-blooded challenges - and despite Fulham coach Martin Jol's incredulous reaction, the decision was correct.

A pivotal 14-second passage of play tipped the balance of the match in Sunderland's favour after five minutes of the second period.

Fulham left-back John Arne Riise hit the Sunderland bar with a deflected shot but Sunderland broke quickly, with Adam Johnson's fine, sweeping cross freeing Fletcher to toe the ball past Mark Schwarzer.

Petric came on for the injured Bryan Ruiz and lifted a chance over the bar shortly after making his entrance, while at the other end, Schwarzer produced a full-stretch save to repel Johnson's curler.

Fulham drew level a minute later, Petric steering the ball into the roof of the net from inside the six-yard box after Duff drilled a low cross across the face of goal from the left.

The teams were not level for long, however, with Spanish centre-back Cuellar heading Sunderland back into the lead from Johnson's corner only three minutes later to register his first goal for the club.

Sessegnon put daylight between the teams with a superb goal in the 70th minute, rolling his marker and unleashing a glorious strike from 25 yards that found the net via the inside of the right-hand post.

Fletcher was denied a second goal by the assistant referee's flag, while Sunderland were indebted to goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who saved brilliantly from Steve Sidwell and Petric to preserve the visitors' two-goal cushion.