Jack Clarke says Sunderland defied expectations with their FA Cup performance at Fulham as they did enough to secure a replay against the Premier League side. The fourth round tie at Craven Cottage pitted Championship play-off hopefuls Sunderland against a Fulham team bidding for European qualification.
Clarke's goal inside the opening five minutes gave the Black Cats the perfect start but, in an open game which saw multiple chances at both ends, Tom Cairney scored for the Cottagers to earn a replay at the Stadium of Light next week. Fulham dominated possession but Sunderland created enough opportunities to win the game at the first time of asking.
"I think we did really well," said Clarke. "We probably weren't expected to do as well as we did.
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"We got the early goal and created a lot of chances throughout the game - obviously, they have a lot of quality and created a lot of chances also, so I think a draw was a fair result in the end. We're really happy with how we played.
"Not many people were expecting us to come here and do as well as we did. We always had full faith that we could hurt them when we got the ball and we showed that in spells, and hopefully we can take that into the replay."
For his goal, Clarke nicked the ball from Issa Diop as the former West Ham defender dwelt on the ball too long, and ran through to steer his finish beyond goalkeeper Marek Rodak. Clarke said: "It was nice. It set us off to a good start and we tried to build on it, and we created a few chances after that and probably could have taken more of them and scored a few more goals, but it didn't happen for us on that front."
The cup draw means Sunderland have now lost just of their last eight games in all competitions, and it means they will go into this weekend's league trip to Millwall full of confidence. Clarke said: "There seems to be a sense of momentum, getting the draw and earning a replay on Saturday and then winning in the league the weekend before [against Middlesbrough].
"We'll just keep going and taking it game by game and see where we end up at the end of the season. Now we will rest, recover, and start prepping for Millwall, and hopefully we can go there and get a result as well."
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