Ten-man Fulham were defeated 3-1 by Sunderland at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon. Steven Fletcher's opener was cancelled out by Mladen Petric, but goals from Carlos Cuellar and Stephane Sessegnon sealed the win for Martin O'Neill's men.

Fletcher put Sunderland in front in the 50th minute after the Whites had seen Captain Brede Hangeland shown a straight red card in the first half for what referee Lee Probert deemed a two-footed foul on Lee Cattermole.

Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Whites levelled proceedings through substitute Petric just after the hour mark.

But, with Petric receiving treatment off the field to temporarily reduce Fulham to nine men, Cuellar put the Black Cats in front, before Sessegnon ensured the visitors took the points with a fine individual effort.

Martin Jol made three changes from the side that started at the Emirates eight days ago, with Giorgos Karagounis making his full debut in the absence of the suspended Chris Baird, while Alexander Kačaniklić replaced the injured Kieran Richardson and Damien Duff was preferred to Ashkan Dejagah on the right wing.

Karagounis was looking to take charge in the middle of the park and on four minutes the Greek sprayed a marvellous crossfield pass out to Duff who bent a ball in towards Dimitar Berbatov. Fulham’s top scorer climbed well but glanced his header wide of the far post.

Neat interplay on 19 minutes between Duff and Berbatov found Steve Sidwell in space but the midfielder’s left-footed effort was tame and too close to Simon Mignolet to cause the away side any great concern.

For the second week in a row the Whites suffered a huge blow down our left flank as we lost another winger to injury when Kačaniklić had to be replaced by Hugo Rodallega on 28 minutes.

And things went from bad to worse for Fulham on the half-hour mark when Hangeland was sent off. After a short Karagounis pass, the Whites skipper slid in to try and dispossess Cattermole but caught the Black Cats skipper on the shin. There was never any intent from Hangeland who kept one foot on the floor, but that didn’t prevent referee Probert from brandishing the red card.

Fulham didn’t let our heads drop, however, and Berbatov – who was now sporting the Captain’s armband – squandered the game’s best chance moments later when he side-footed straight at Mignolet after Duff had found him in space 12 yards from goal.

The Fulham faithful were livid on 34 minutes when Danny Rose’s rash challenge on Sascha Riether went unpunished. It was surprising not to see Probert blow for a foul as it appeared to mirror Hangeland’s challenge. The inevitable introduction of Philippe Senderos was then made, with Karagounis being sacrificed for the centre-back.

Sunderland looked to press home their man advantage and Aaron Hughes saved a certain goal on 42 minutes when he cut out Sessegnon’s low cross before Fletcher could fire it in from six yards.

And Hughes was exerting his influence up the other end of the pitch not long after when he slid Berbatov in, only for the Bulgarian to drag his shot some way wide.

The teams came out for the second half and it was the 10 men who nearly broke the deadlock when John Arne Riise’s deflected effort grazed the crossbar, although Sunderland then delivered the ultimate sucker punch.

After successfully clearing the ball, the men in blue quickly countered and Johnson found Fletcher in space in behind Senderos. The Scotland international then neatly clipped the ball beyond Mark Schwarzer to hand Sunderland the lead.

Fulham were enjoying no luck at all, with the latest mishap coming when Bryan Ruiz pulled up just before the hour mark with what looked like a hamstring injury. He was replaced by Petric and the Croatian nearly scored with his first touch only to fire over from a tight angle.

Fulham had to call on the in-form Schwarzer on 61 minutes, with the Australian at full stretch to keep out Johnson’s goalbound curler. It was end-to-end stuff and the Whites were level seconds later when Petric expertly fired home Duff’s ball across the face of goal.

Joy soon turned to despair once again for the Whites, though, when Petric had to be temporarily withdrawn from the action after injuring himself bringing Fulham level.

It was going to be backs to the walls now for the nine men but we were level for mere moments as Cuellar headed in from a corner on 65 minutes. The silver-lining for Fulham, though, was that Petric was able to re-enter the action following treatment.

Sunderland extended their lead on 70 minutes when they broke down the left before Sessegnon cut inside and hit a sumptuous effort that crashed in via the right-hand post. Hearts were in mouths six minutes later when Fletcher turned in Johnson's cross, only for the linesman to rule offside.

The game was wide open now and Sidwell saw a good chance come and go when his effort was smothered by Mignolet, before Sunderland showed no cutting edge at the end of a rapid counter attack.

Petric almost got his side back in it on 83 minutes when he skipped inside a challenge to put himself one-on-one with Mignolet. His right-footed shot was firm but the Belgian stopper made a fantastic save to preserve his team’s two-goal advantage.

The Whites continued to play until the final whistle but were unable to haul themselves back into the game despite a monumental effort.