 Flo had a bad day in front of goal |
Sunderland boss Howard Wilkinson bemoaned his side's luck after seeing them slip to a sixth consecutive defeat. The Wearsiders were left rooted to the bottom of the table after a 1-0 defeat away to Fulham.
They were guilty of missing a glut of chances and were made to pay when Louis Saha scored the only goal with less than six minutes remaining.
"We deserved more than we got from the game," Wilkinson added.
"We had 18 strikes and Fulham probably had less than half that number - but the stats and the results don't always marry up.
"It wasn't to be because of good defending, bad luck and some of our finishing.
"In our position, it's natural that we snatch at things and aren't as sweet as we'd like to be with our finishing.
"A goal would have settled us down and could have given us a tangible reward of three points.
"I'm very disappointed to lose but you have to look at the manner of the performance as some consolation.
"I got what I asked for from my players - and if you list the ingredients necessary to win a match, most of them were there."
Time is running out for Sunderland, who are seven points adrift of safety with just nine games remaining.
Wilkinson's men have taken just one point from a possible 30 and have not won a league game for two-and-a-half months.
"Do I think this club's made any progress since I took over?" Wilkinson added. "I think the team has but the results don't stand that up.
"Now let's deal in the present, not the past. It'll be difficult to stay up but we have nine games left."
 Perhaps we only deserved one point today but took three, so we were lucky to win |
The win means Fulham have now taken 10 points from a possible 12.
They are 11 points clear of the drop zone and Fulham assistant manager Christian Damiano believes their survival is almost guaranteed.
Damiano said: "We're in a good position and although we might not be mathematically safe, we're very close to safety.
"Perhaps we only deserved one point today but took three, so we were lucky to win.
"It was a difficult, heavy game, our third in six days - but everyone gave 100%.
"Sunderland created many chances but Maik Taylor was fantastic and Martin Djetou cleared off the line.
"Then Andrejs Stolcers came on, put in two good crosses and the second one got a great finish by Saha."
MMIX
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