SUNDERLAND 0, WEST HAM UNITED 1

FRENCH striker Frederic Kanoute made up for a series of first half misses by shooting West Ham into the quarter finals of the FA Cup in a hard-fought game at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland, hit by injury and suspensions, were kept on the hop by a much slicker United side which should have gone in at the break a couple of goals to the good.

But Kanoute missed three excellent chances, starting as early as the fifth minute when his first touch let him down. He made no mistake, however, in the 76th minute, beating Danish goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen with a low, right foot shot after a weaving run through the middle by midfielder Frank Lampard.

Sunderland were held in a tight grip by the super-efficient West Ham central defenders Igor Stimac and Christian Dailly and goalkeeper Shaka Hislop had only one testing save to make, pushing away a low right foot shot from Welsh international John Oster in the 31st minute.

Sunderland were disrupted by the loss of their Slovakian international skipper Stanislav Varga in the 22nd minute, which forced a re-organisation of their defence, but could have no complaints about the result.