Sunderland's struggle to avoid relegation will go down to the wire after lax defending contributed to a 3-1 loss at Portsmouth's Fratton Park last night.
Sunderland's struggle to avoid relegation will go down to the wire after lax defending contributed to a 3-1 loss at Portsmouth's Fratton Park last night.
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Portsmouth's John Utaka celebrates his goal. |
The Black Cats' needed all three points from this visit to the south coast but their Premier League fate will now be determined by Chelsea's visit next Sunday.
Sunderland were left just two points clear of the drop zone. with a win against Chelsea seeing them safe while anything else and their future will be decided by results elsewhere.
Ricky Sbragia's strugglers remain a point better off than Hull, who host Manchester United, and two ahead of local rivals Newcastle.
Sbragia, reflecting on the second goal, told Setanta Sports: "We knew in the second half they'd push on to us and close us down. but we got off to a good start.
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Kenwyne scored and from then on we should have been a bit more confident and bossed the game.
"We kept the lead for two minutes, and that's not acceptable. The second goal was a bad mistake by Anton. He switched off."
