Sunderland 0 Fulham 3

May 1 2011 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

Fulham's Simon Davies celebrates scoring his team's third goal while Elmohamady and Simon Mignolet look on dejected

THEY have a new favourite refrain in the South West corner, the block of seats strictly reserved for Sunderland die-hards.

Bob Marley classic ‘Three Little Birds’ is the latest song of choice for the Black Cat fanatic, complete with a lilting chorus that chirps that ‘Every Little Thing’s Gonna be Alright’.

It is meant to be an uplifting anthem but on days like this, as thousands of weary Wearsiders stream out of a deflated Stadium of Light, it feels more like gallows humour.

Thanks to their stunning start, last week’s victory and results elsewhere, you can at least strike relegation off the agenda.

A six-point buffer and the inability of endangered rivals to string together successive wins will ultimately see Sunderland safe and secure a fifth season in the elite.

But with the toothless Black Cats limping towards the line, that doesn’t feel like a cause for much celebration for troubled Steve Bruce.

The Sunderland boss cut a desperately frustrated figure here.

A promising campaign is frittering away before his eyes and all he can offer by way of mitigation is an injury problem that forced him to gamble on Nedum Onuoha as an emergency striker.Yes, we have got that desperate - a centre-back up front for 30 minutes of a Premier League fixture Sunderland needed to win.

Bruce’s logic was that Onuoha once did OK in that role as a Manchester City youth but even he admitted it amounted to a pretty pathetic state of affairs for a club that started the season with £60million worth of striking talent.

And to be honest, the injury list tells only half the story. For while torn hamstrings took Danny Welbeck and Asamoah Gyan out of this game, they didn’t explain the inability of the otherwise excellent Lee Cattermole or Stephane Sessegnon to test the keeper when presented with gilt edged opportunities.

And they don’t offer an excuse for Steed Malbranque’s cursed run in front of goal in red and white. Unbelievably the Belgian winger has only just been toppled by Clint Dempsey as Fulham’s all-time top Premier League goalscorer.

He netted 38 in West London white but he has struck just once in the league for the Black Cats – way back in October 2008. He never looked like getting that particular monkey off his back here, for all his fine, flying work in the final third.

That profligacy is the only reason why Bruce is back under pressure this morning, battling to save a season in danger of concluding on a depressing note.

Because for 45 first-half minutes his Black Cats were bright enough to convince you that they were over their mid-season slump. Freed of the fear of failure that has built up over the last couple of months, their start was a flying one.