Damian Spellman Stadium of Light KENWYNE JONES struck four minutes from time to prevent 10-man Sunderland slipping to a fourth successive Premier League defeat.

Jones headed home his fourth goal of the season and third in as many games to cancel out Simon Davies' 32nd-minute opener as the Black Cats recovered from a dreadful first-half display. The equaliser came 19 minutes after Greg Halford had been sent off for a second bookable offence to make David Healy pay for a glaring firsthalf miss.

It was the visitors who had enjoyed the better of the early exchanges and Fulham might have taken the lead on four minutes but Clint Dempsey's header was straight at keeper Craig Gordon. Fulham should have gone ahead on nine minutes when Danny Higginbotham's woeful pass left Gordon stranded but the normally lethal David Healy fired wide of the empty net from 20 yards.

It was Danny Collins who enjoyed some good fortune soon after when he tangled with Diomansy Kamara as the striker ran on to Dempsey's through ball, only for referee Andre Marriner to wave play on. Kamara was still complaining about that decision when he was awarded a free-kick and this time, Davies decided to go it alone.

The Welshman powered a curling free-kick wide of Gordon's dive and into the back of the net to give his side a deserved lead at the break.

The home side started the second half in determined fashion and Jones finally made his presence tell on 47 minutes, firing in a shot that was blocked by Danny Murphy, before curling a left-foot effort wide seconds later.

Sunderland's tempo was much higher and Fulham keeper Antti Niemi just managed to get his hand to a Ross Wallace free-kick. The visitors were defending desperately and Dejan Stefanovic gratefully cleared Jones' 56thminute header. From the resulting corner, Niemi pushed the ball behind once again after Dickson Etuhu's header ricocheted off one of his defenders.

However, it would have been 2-0 on the hour had Dempsey managed to keep his shot down. Sunderland's problems increased on 67 minutes when Halford dragged back Healy and was given a second yellow card.

Having seen Kamara have a goal ruled out, the home side created their best chance of the game on 70 minutes.

Jones' flick put Leadbitter through but Niemi made an excellent block.

However, they were on their feet four minutes from time when Jones rose to power a Leadbitter cross home. The home side might have nicked it at the death when Anthony Stokes got in, but Niemi was once again equal to the task.