Sunderland mauled by Fulham

Injury-hit Sunderland crashed to their eighth defeat in 10 matches as Fulham scored only their second away win in nearly two years with a 3-0 victory at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

Fulham had not won on their league travels since August 2009, but the Cottagers proved too strong for Steve Bruce's side, who had been hoping to build on last weekend's victory over Wigan.

French teenager Gael Kakuta, a loan signing from west London rivals Chelsea, gave Fulham the lead on 33 minutes before Welsh international Simon Davies bagged a second-half brace to wrap up the points.

Sunderland enjoyed the better of the early chances but ultimately suffered through a lack of composure in attack, an inevitable side effect of a injury toll that has left Bruce without any fit strikers.

Fulham manager Mark Hughes however was able to make three changes from the side which beat Bolton 3-0 in midweek, Philippe Senderos making a long-awaited debut following an injury-plagued start to his Craven Cottage career.

Kakuta and veteran striker Bobby Zamora were also promoted to the starting line-up as Hughes rotated his resources.

And it was Kakuta who opened the scoring for Fulham on 33 minutes after some dreadful defending from the home side.

Zamora slipped a pass through to Kakuta in the middle of the area and the 19-year-old kept his cool to jab the ball through the legs of Simon Mignolet.

Sunderland spurned a glorious chance to level soon afterwards but Lee Cattermole failed to seriously test Mark Schwarzer, who saved comfortably from 10 yards out.

Sunderland might have made it 2-0 early in the second half but Zamora was just unable to get a touch on Gudjohnson's firm cross.

But Fulham made no mistake on 61 minutes, when Steve Sidwell got to the byline and cut back for Davies who steered his shot into the far corner to make it 2-0.

Davies then sealed a miserable afternoon for Sunderland with his second, taking advantage of a mix-up between Mignolet and Anton Ferdinand to turn in Zamora's cross.