Fulham 0 Sunderland 0

Sunderland were short of luck in the encounter at Craven Cottage this weekend.

Kieran Richardson was denied the winner after referee Keith Shroud disallowed a perfectly good goal.

Roy Keane made a couple of changes to the side that drew with Arsenal with Leadbitter coming in for Yorke and Chopra coming in for Reid.

Sunderland started brightly with Richardson testing Mark Schwarzer early on with a low driver to his left.

Sunderland then hit the woodwork for the first time of the match when Cisse unleashed a furious drive after working his way into the area.

Sunderland then were awarded a freekick on the edge of the area when Cisse was brought down. Richarson`s free kick amazenly hit the bar three times first off it cleared the wall hit the right hand post then the left hand post to come out and hit Schwarzer for it to hit the right hand post for a second time.

Sunderland came close again after Cisse hit a freekick for the shot the fall into the path of Whitehead his shot narrowly missed the target.

Then the only goal of the game came when Murphy fouled Whitehead on the edge of the area. Richardson`s superb freekick beat Schwarzer only for the referee to disallow it.

Fulham then called Gordon into action when Bullard had a crack from outside the area but Scotland`s number one was more than equal to it.

Sunderland went on to hit the woodwork for the fifth time when Cisse hit the bar with a superb effort.



Sunderland Line Up 4-4-2

Gordon 7
Chimbonda 7
Ferdinand 8
Collins 9
McCartney 7
Malbranque 6
Whitehead 7
Leadbitter 6 (Reid 7)
Richardson 8
Cisse 8 (Murphy 6)
Chopra 7 (Healy 6)


Subs not used

Fulop
Diouf
Bardsley
Tainio
Vital Sunderland Says
We were so unlucky let hope we used up all our bad luck in time for the Newcastle game.