Barclays English Premier League Black Cats struggling

Sunderland's struggle to avoid relegation will go down to the wire after lax defending contributed to a 3-1 loss at Portsmouth's Fratton Park here on Monday.

The Black Cats' needed all three points from this visit to the south coast but their Premier League fate will now be determined by Chelsea's visit next Sunday.

Sunderland were left just two points clear of the drop zone with a win against Chelsea seeing them safe while anything else and their future will be decided by results elsewhere.

Ricky Sbragia's strugglers remain a point better off than Hull, who host Manchester United, and two ahead of local rivals Newcastle.

Portsmouth had already ensured their topflight status last weekend.

Both sides hit the post in a goalless and largely lifeless first half.

Sunderland were lucky to escape when the woodwork diverted Peter Crouch's close range header in the fourth minute, while the visitors were groaning when Kenwyne Jones' glancing header hit Asmir Begovic's right-hand post approaching the break.

Begovic, replacing the injured David James, was having his first start for Portsmouth, and the lanky Yugoslavian-born Canadian made his mark when producing a double save to deny efforts from Steed Malbranque in the 14th minute.

Then after almost 12 and a half hours without either side scoring a goal, first Sunderland and then Portsmouth put an end to that miserable statistic as a dreary encounter suddenly caught fire.

Jones had the Sunderland fans dreaming of another season in the Premier League when he half-volleyed Calum Davenport's cross from the right past Begovic in the 58th minute.

But Portsmouth were back on level terms seconds later when Nigerian John Utaka held off a Black Cats defender to rifle past Marton Fulop, although it was not without controversy as the referee had blown his whistle for a penalty before the ball crossed the line.

Poor defending by Anton Ferdinand who failed to secure Begovic's long punt down field left Utaka in a one-on-one with Fulop with Phil Bardsley's attempt to prevent the inevitable resulting in an own goal.

With 20 minutes on the clock Begovic denied Grant Leadbitter's low 30 yard drive and the Canadian keeper did well shortly after to keep out Jones' determined volley.

Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragia introduced Djibril Cisse for Teemu Tainio in a last ditch bid to find the all important equaliser, the Frenchman quickly followed on the pitch by Daryl Murphy for Leadbitter.

But it was Portsmouth who had the last word, killing off the game and possibly Sunderland's tenure in the Premier League when on-loan Armand Traore drilled a shot into Fulop's far corner.

Sbragia, reflecting on the second goal, told Setanta Sports: "We knew in the second half they'd push on to us and close us down. but we got off to a good start. Kenwyne scored and from then on we should have been a bit more confident and bossed the game.

"We kept the lead for two minutes, and that's not acceptable. The second goal was a bad mistake by Anton. He switched off. I would imagine he should have just put his foot through it and helped it on.

"From then on I thought we played reasonably well. We left ourselves open late on - we were obviously trying to go for the equaliser."