Sunderland 1 - 0 Fulham

Jones toasts new deal

Updated: January 27, 2009, 4:56 PM ET

Kenwyne Jones celebrated his new contract with the only goal as Sunderland ended a run of four Premier League games without a win against Fulham.

• Sbragia hails Jones' loyalty

The Trinidad and Tobago international, who signed a new four-and-a-half-year contract earlier in the day, pounced on the loose ball after Mark Schwarzer had saved Djibril Cisse's 55th-minute shot to edge a tight encounter.

Schwarzer had earlier denied both men and later pulled off a fine reaction stop to keep out Steed Malbranque's 63rd-minute effort, but his heroics could not prevent the Londoners from slipping to a second successive league defeat after a sequence of nine without loss.

The win, which came in front of a crowd of 36,539, eased the Black Cats further clearer of the drop zone and set them up perfectly for Sunday's derby trip to fellow strugglers Newcastle.

Remarkably, it was just Sunderland's fourth victory on their own pitch this season and, perhaps the 2-1 win over the Magpies in October apart, the most welcome.

The statistics did not augur well before kick-off: The Black Cats' record at the Stadium of Light has been patchy to say the least, while Fulham had drawn their last four - at Liverpool, Aston Villa, Stoke and Tottenham - 0-0.

But the opening 45 minutes demonstrated that those facts were no quirk of fate.

Sunderland, with Cisse and Jones leading the line, created a handful of half-chances but could not make any of them count.

That was in part due to Schwarzer, who made a decent 28th-minute save from Cisse and a much better one from Jones eight minutes later with Aaron Hughes blocking the Frenchman's follow-up.

Cisse had earlier blasted a rising shot just wide, but the Australian was not unduly troubled.

But Marton Fulop was even more under-employed at the other end with the Hungarian not having to make a single save of any note before the half-time whistle sounded.

There were a handful of openings with Andy Johnson seeing a 28th-minute shot deflected wide by Danny Collins and Clint Dempsey blasting a 39th-minute effort just wide.

However, there was little on show to warm a crowd which grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of quality on offer as both sides repeatedly squandered possession cheaply.

There was little doubt that Roy Hodgson would have been the happier of the two managers at the break, and it was Ricky Sbragia who faced the bigger task to rally his troops for the second half of a game they really needed to win.

Sunderland re-emerged with greater purpose as the second half got under way, and Schwarzer had to come from his line to punch away an Andy Reid cross after full-back John Pantsil had dived in unnecessarily.

The former Middlesbrough keeper came to his side's rescue once again with 55 minutes gone, but this time the helping hand he needed was nowhere to be found.

Schwarzer managed to parry Cisse's snapshot, but neither he nor any of his defenders could get to the rebound before Jones, who side-footed home from close range to the evident delight of the home crowd.

The sense of relief inside the stadium was palpable, although few doubted there was still much hard work to be done, and there would have been a much more relaxed atmosphere among the red-and-white contingent had Schwarzer not smothered Malbranque's swerving 63rd-minute drive.

But Fulham's big chance arrived five minutes later when Dempsey headed down Pantsil's deep cross at the far post only for Simon Davies to lift his shot high over as Fulop came to meet him.

Malbranque could have killed the game off seconds later had Schwarzer not pulled off a fine reaction save at the other end, but the match was far from over.

Pantsil found himself in an advanced position with 10 minutes to go, but he lashed his shot from the corner of the box wildly off target.

Jones might have cemented the victory with a minute remaining when he held off defender Brede Hangeland before getting in a left-foot shot, but again Schwarzer kept him out.

Sbragia hails Jones' loyalty

Ricky Sbragia praised striker Kenwyne Jones' loyalty after seeing him celebrate his new contract by firing Sunderland to a vital win.

He said: "There's one thing about Kenwyne, he has never wavered and said he wanted to leave Sunderland Football Club, so he deserves everything he gets. He deserves the contract and without doubt, we need him. We know we need him, he is an important member of the team.

"He deserved that tonight. A lot of players at other clubs, or even our club, would want to go and talk to club that was interested, but credit to Kenwyne, he was never interested.

"I was glad he scored. I wouldn't say he was tip-top, he wasn't brilliant, but he kept at it and kept working hard and kept on having a go for us, and led the line reasonably well.

"He can do better, we know that and I think Kenwyne knows that. But he scored a vital goal for the club which has given us three vital points.''

The win was just Sunderland's fourth at the Stadium of Light in the league this season, and could not have come at a better time with Sunday's derby trip to Newcastle looming.

Sbragia said: "I am not really concerned if we played extremely well. At the end of the day, the points are more important than the performance.''

Fulham boss Roy Hodgson was disappointed not to have been able to give owner Mohamed Al Fayed with a first away league victory with which to celebrate his 76th birthday, and secure the rewards that might have brought in the transfer market.

He said: "It's the chairman's birthday today and we were rather hoping we could give him a nice birthday present.

"But unfortunately, we weren't able to do so, so it might not be the right time to ask him for money.''

However, Hodgson has few complaints about the result.

He said: "I don't have any complaints about the result as such. I don't think I could sit here and say we were robbed in any way.

"But on the other hand, I do think the performance perhaps merited a little bit more and on another day, would have got us something from the game.''