GUS POYET is hoping last night’s match-winning display at Fulham marks a turning point for Sunderland winger Ricky Alvarez.

Alvarez, who is on a season-long loan at the Stadium of Light from Inter Milan, scored his first goal for the Black Cats as a 3-1 victory at Craven Cottage set up an FA Cup fifth-round tie at Bradford City.

Sunderland profited from a calamitous own goal from Fulham goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli, and also saw Jordi Gomez roll home a stoppage-time penalty, but it was Alvarez’s 75th-minute thunderbolt that really set the pulse racing and capped a fine individual display.

The Argentinian winger produced little in his first five months as a Sunderland player, but his willingness to isolate defenders at pace sets him apart from the majority of his team-mates, and Poyet is hoping last night’s performance is a sign of things to come.

“Hopefully, this is the start of something special for him,” said the Black Cats head coach. “You could see from the reaction of his team-mates what it meant to them too. They see him in training every day, and know what he can do because they have to try to get the ball from him.

“The problem is that we haven’t been able to play him a lot, but I said after the last game, ‘I have to play Ricky’. We needed to find a way to get him into the team and enable him to play, and the circumstances enabled me to play him here.

“Now, everyone can see why I need him on the pitch. We need to control the game and pass the ball, and if we do that and give him the ball in the right areas, I wouldn’t be happy as a full-back. I wouldn’t want to see him coming every time with the ball control he has and the ability he’s got. He’s a great addition for us – let’s see if we can get him to the pace of English football and find the balance that will help him succeed.”

Alvarez’s pace and willingness to cut inside from the right flank was a key part of Sunderland’s attacking all evening, but having fallen behind to a goal from Hugo Rodallega, the visitors were grateful for a howler from Bettinelli that got them back into the game.

The Fulham keeper dropped Patrick van Aanholt’s cross behind his own goalline, and while he was delighted with his side’s attacking performance, Poyet conceded the mistake was a turning point.

“I was pleased watching us play, and I haven’t always been able to say that this season,” he said. “We found our passing today, but I was thinking how unfair football is because we were the better team by far.

“We were creating chances and controlling the ball, but we conceded a very strange goal. I wanted the players to believe that something would happen, and it was a bit special when it did. It was probably the turning point of the game, but overall we definitely deserved to win.”

The victory came despite a series of setbacks that started when Jack Rodwell was forced to pull out of the match-day squad yesterday morning with a minor injury.

That left Sunderland with just six substitutes, and the tally became five when Connor Wickham suffered a calf injury in the warm-up, forcing Steven Fletcher’s elevation to the starting XI.

Wickham’s problem will be assessed this morning, and there is a chance the striker could be sidelined for a number of weeks.

“We lost Jack before the game and then Connor in the warm-up, and then we conceded a very strange goal,” said Poyet. “It was becoming a difficult day for us, but luckily something happened for us in the second half and that changed things.”

The win means Sunderland travel to Bradford a week on Sunday, and Poyet is already concerned about the state of the pitch at Valley Parade, with recent games there having been played on a dreadful surface.

“It’s an opportunity for us, although it’s going to be tough after what they did (at Chelsea) because that was incredible,” he said. “We are already talking about the pitch, which everybody knows is one of the worst in the country.

“That will make the game different. It won’t be a passing football game, and we need to prepare for that. Maybe I will have to ask the groundsman at the training ground to smash up one of the pitches so we can train there the week before the game.”