London - Sunderland remain in grave danger of being relegated from the English Premier League after they were beaten 3-1 Monday at Portsmouth.

Kenwyne Jones put Sunderland ahead until John Utaka, an own goal by Phil Bardsley and a late strike from Armand Traore gave Portsmouth the win and kept Sunderland deep in the mire.

Ricky Sbragia's Sunderland side remain just two points ahead of the bottom three and with one game remaining - at home to Chelsea - wins for Hull City and Newcastle United on Sunday could send them down to the Coca-Cola Championship.

Things looked good for the visitors when centre back Calum Davenport broke out of defence, ran down the right and sent in a great cross that Jones toe-poked home on
59 minutes.

But their joy lasted just one minute until Grant Leadbitter inadvertently headed the ball into the path of Utaka, who out-muscled the Sunderland defence to level the score with his first goal of the season.

Eight minutes later, a disastrous piece of defending from Anton Ferdinand, who let a long ball go through his legs, left Utaka clean through, and after he took the ball around the goalkeeper, Bardsley slid in to clear but only succeeded in putting the ball into his own net.

Jones missed a great chance to equalize for Sunderland, but with two minutes remaining, a crisp Portsmouth move found Traore inside the box, and he fired a left-footed shot to seal the victory for Portsmouth.(dpa)