Brede Hangeland was sent off for Fulham after half an hour, but although Steven Fletcher´s opener for the visitors was cancelled out by Mladen Petric, goals from Carlos Cuellar and Stephane Sessegnon gave Sunderland the win.[break]
With 10 goals to their name, Martin O´Neill´s side are no longer the lowest-scoring team out of England´s 92 league clubs.
Victory lifted the Black Cats above Wigan Athletic into 15th place, three points above the relegation zone, while Fulham remain ninth.
Dimitar Berbatov headed wide from Damien Duff´s cross after five minutes at Craven Cottage, but the first half was a sleepy affair until Hangeland was sent off by referee Lee Probert.
The Norwegian was shown a straight red card for jumping in two-footed on Lee Cattermole -- himself no stranger to full-blooded challenges -- and despite Fulham coach Martin Jol´s incredulous reaction, the decision was correct.
A pivotal 14-second passage of play tipped the balance of the match in Sunderland´s favour after five minutes of the second period.
Fulham left-back John Arne Riise hit the Sunderland bar with a deflected shot but Sunderland broke quickly, with Adam Johnson´s fine, sweeping cross freeing Fletcher to toe the ball past Mark Schwarzer.
Petric came on for the injured Bryan Ruiz and lifted a chance over the bar shortly after making his entrance, while at the other end, Schwarzer produced a full-stretch save to repel Johnson´s curler.
Fulham drew level a minute later, Petric steering the ball into the roof of the net from inside the six-yard box after Duff drilled a low cross across the face of goal from the left.
The teams were not level for long, however, with Spanish centre-back Cuellar heading Sunderland back into the lead from Johnson´s corner only three minutes later to register his first goal for the club.
Sessegnon put daylight between the teams with a superb goal in the 70th minute, rolling his marker and unleashing a glorious strike from 25 yards that found the net via the inside of the right-hand post.
Fletcher was denied a second goal by the assistant referee´s flag, while Sunderland were indebted to goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who saved brilliantly from Steve Sidwell and Petric to preserve the visitors´ two-goal cushion.
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