Newspaper round-up: Sunderland v Fulham

To be honest I couldn't bring myself to post anything yesterday. Despite gaining a point away, the manner in which we lost the chance to haul ourselves clear of the relegation dog fight was thoroughly depressing, yet weirdly predictable...Anyhow, here is how the main news outlets saw our match against the Black Cats...

Roy Keane has mellowed in management, insisted Martin Hardy in The People, but he still instills "the fear of God" into his players in the closing stages of a game they are losing. "Yet again, Sunderland dragged themselves from the jaws of defeat in the final minutes of a game to grab a point they barely deserved."

Indeed, the first 45 minutes were "perhaps the most insipid seen under Keane", agreed Simon Williams in The Guardian. "Fulham, though, did not capitalise fully and, although Simon Davies gave them the lead with a delicious curling free-kick after fooling goalkeeper Craig Gordon into thinking he was going to cross, they did not kill Sunderland off. David Healy had their best chance but the Northern Ireland international somehow managed to put a first-time shot wide of an unguarded net."

Even so, it was the home side's supporters whose belief was being "stretched for the first time under Keane" by the interval, wrote George Caulkin in The Times, as without the likes of Dwight Yorke, Paul McShane and Carlos Edwards, they lacked quality. "By contrast, Fulham looked classy and confident," he noted. "As their supporters crowed: 'We're winning away, we're winning away. How s*** must you be? We're winning away'."

The Black Cats' plight seemingly deepened when right-back Greg Halford was sent off for his second bookable foul 20 minutes from time - but it was the visitors who crumbled, according to The Sun, which claimed: "The most amazing thing about this clash of possible relegation candidates was the way the Cottagers once again capsized after going ahead."

And the man who supplied the killer blow was Sunderland's £6m hitman Kenwyne Jones, wrote Brian Mcnally in the Sunday Mirror. "A third home defeat of the campaign against a moderate Fulham outfit was very much on the cards until Jones managed to plant a bullet header past Antti Niemi from Grant Leadbitter's searching cross."

The result means Fulham have drawn six of their 11 Premier League games this season, reflected The Guardian's Simon Williams, yet it could have been even worse for the away side. "The substitute, Anthony Stokes, should have won the game for Sunderland in stoppage time but a dreadful first touch allowed Niemi to narrow the angle and save with his legs."

However, the way the match ended left Fulham manager, Lawrie Sanchez, admitting that his "overwhelming emotion" was sadness, according to the Independent on Sunday's Simon Rushworth, who quoted him as saying: 'It depresses me. Our failure to win games is getting to be a bit of a problem scenario that we need to sort out.'