Sunderland boost survival hopes

Sunderland are now four points clear of the relegation zone after a vital win over Hull City.

Hull plunged further into relegation trouble

Sunderland moved up to 15th place in the Premier League with a crucial 1-0 win over relegation rivals Hull City. The hosts scored the only goal of the game on the stroke of half-time when Andy Reid's cross was flicked on before Djibril Cisse finished with a powerful header. Kenwyne Jones had a goal disallowed shortly after half-time when he bundled the ball in from an offside position. Hull pressed forward as the clock wound down but despite enjoying a lot of possession they could not create any clear-cut chances. The visitors came into the game having won only one of their 16 previous Premier League fixtures and now find themselves just three points above the drop zone.

Bright

But Hull started the game brightly as they pressed forward with plenty of freedom and fashioned their first chance with less than two minutes on the clock. Manucho was close to connecting with a cross from the left by Geovanni and moments later former Sunderland midfielder Kevin Kilbane steered a low shot just wide of the post. Boaz Myhill had to race from his goal to mop up after his defence were caught out by a Grant Leadbitter lob up field, but he had little else to do in the opening stages. Manucho just failed to reach another Geovanni cross in the 21st minute then the Brazilian himself dipped a speculative long-range effort over the bar. Geovanni then took advantage of a series of defensive errors to find space to cross towards Kevin Kilbane, connected with a low header that was parried wide by Scottish goalkeeper Craig Gordon. The visitors continued to threaten from corners and Phil Bardsley was forced to head a Michael Turner effort off the line. But the home side grabbed an opener in first-half injury time when Danny Collins flicked on Reid's deep cross and found Cisse, who duly nodded past the helpless Myhill.

Disallowed

After the restart, Sunderland poured forward and Cisse almost grabbed a second straight away, breaking through the Tigers' defence and lashing a low shot which was blocked by Myhill. Jones thought he had doubled Sunderland's lead in the 48th minute when he nodded in a headed pass from Reid, but the assistant referee correctly ruled him offside. Cisse had another effort saved by Myhill before George Boateng almost took advantage of a half-clearance from the home side to lash a powerful right-foot drive inches wide. As the visitors chased an equaliser, Sunderland almost hit them on the counter-attack when Leadbitter played in Reid but the Irish midfielder blazed his shot over the bar when one-on-one with Myhill The visitors came closest to an equaliser in the 72nd minute when Craig Fagan crossed from deep on the right and substitute Caleb Folan rose highest in the box to head inches wide of the target. Hull continued to push forward in search of a goal but it was Sunderland who almost made it 2-0 in the dying seconds when Daryl Murphy blasted a left-foot shot against the post.

Sunderland	Team Statistics	Hull City
1	Goals	0
1	1st Half Goals	0
3	Shots on Target	2
4	Shots off Target	10
3	Blocked Shots	4
6	Corners	6
12	Fouls	23
6	Offsides	2
2	Yellow Cards	3
0	Red Cards	0
63.9	Passing Success	54.9
14	Tackles	16
85.7	Tackles Success	68.8
56.3	Possession	43.7
47.2	Territorial Advantage	52.8