Sunderland 0 Blackburn Rovers 1: Reid strike boosts Rovers' hopes of European return

Sunderland extend bleak record with another home loss

Sunderland remain in the relegation gutter while Blackburn still chase their European stars, but the distance between the sides was slender and the high-flying visitors ended anxiously as their lowly hosts valiantly sought to end a winless home run which now stretches to 26 Premiership games.

Afterwards, there was a now customary demonstration against the chairman, Bob Murray, but surely, too, some solace as Sunderland had refused to fold and deserved at the last to capture a fifth home point of this season's doomed campaign.

''Among a lot of managers, when you come to Sunderland there's a feeling that at some point they are bound to win again and you feel it could be against you,'' said the Blackburn manager, Mark Hughes. "So we are delighted to have come away with the points.''

The goal that keeps them in the chase for the fourth Champions' League place came in the 15th minute. Sunderland opened the game promisingly but then their defence opened up invitingly. Steven Reid picked the ball up in the centre circle and ran. He ran towards the penalty area and no one challenged him. He ran into the penalty area and no one challenged him. He swayed on to his right foot and still no one challenged him, so he belted the ball into the back of the net.

''It's going to go to the last weekend of the season,'' said Hughes of Blackburn's European chase. "It is fair to say we have crept up on the rails, gone about our business, and are very much in the mix.''

Sunderland's caretaker manager, Kevin Ball, once the master of the midfield clatter, scattered the touchline drinks bottles in frustration as the goal went it. "Having conceded the way we did, it was important we got a reaction from the players and we did,'' he said. "For the whole 90 minutes we gave it a go. It's just that elusive goal that we need to give everybody a lift didn't come.''

Having conceded, Sunderland struggled manfully forward but they have not now scored in 340 minutes and their strike duo, Chris Brown and Jon Stead -- £1.8million from Blackburn last summer - have yet to score all season and they rarely troubled Brad Friedel in the first half. Indeed, as the interval neared, Kelvin Davis was the busier of the keepers, smartly turning away Brett Emerton's header.

Hughes's lengthy team talk must have revolved around the need to kill off even a side as lowly as Sunderland. Tugay, replacing the suspended Robbie Savage, was casually feeling his way back into the fray, while Craig Bellamy, nosily barracked by the crowd because of his Newcastle past, arrogantly flitted around the periphery of the game.

But, in the 52nd minute, a rarity - Sunderland had a chance, a good chance. Grant Leadbitter, their promising 20-year-old midfielder hacked clear and the ball glanced off Tugay's head to Brown - who would have been offside but for that touch - and he was clean through. But he laboured goalwards and although he got a shot away, Friedel confidently snuffed out the chance.

Suddenly Blackburn seemed nervous. They were 1-0 up, chasing Europe against the bottom club, and they were expected to win. Bellamy got into an unseemly scrap with Davis over a loose ball and Hughes used up his three substitutes in the search for stability.

Yet Sunderland are rooted to the foot of the table because they know how to turn testing times into disastrous ones. In the 77th minute, the public address system announced that in the interests of public safety, no one would be allowed to congregate outside the ground after the match. Coincidentally, after the last home match - an identical reverse to Wigan - hundreds of fans had congregated outside to demand the heads of the board. The announcement was interpreted as an attempt to stifle dissent and the crowd turned from cheering to rubbishing their club.

Still, Sunderland refused to back off. As Blackburn became increasingly anxious, Michael Gray crudely cut down Julio Arca and Lucas Neill appeared to handle in the box. Though the final whistle was a relief for the visitors, with their European chase still in the balance, this was another disappointment in a season of them for the hosts.