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 last night.<br /><br />
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<p align="center"><span style="font-size: 8pt">Portsmouth's John Utaka celebrates his goal.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Ricky Sbragia's strugglers remain a point better off than Hull, who host Manchester United, and two ahead of local rivals Newcastle.<br /><br />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.<br />u00a0<br />Kenwyne scored and from then on we should have been a bit more confident and bossed the game.<br /><br />"We kept the lead for two minutes, and that's not acceptable. The second goal was a bad mistake by Anton. He switched off."

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 last night.

Portsmouth leave Sunderland on the brink of relegation

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Portsmouth leave Sunderland on the brink of relegation

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