Fulham keep their survival hopes alive

LONDON, England -- Fulham hauled themselves out of the relegation zone in the English Premier League with a 2-0 home victory over Birmingham City, who slipped to second from bottom.

Reading also dropped into the bottom three by going down 1-0 at home to Tottenham.

Bolton look safe after beating Sunderland 2-0 to be three points clear of the drop zone with a substantially better goal difference than their two closest rivals.

Bottom club Derby's 3-1 loss at Blackburn confirmed them as the worst team in the history of the Premiership. They have picked up 11 points and with one game left cannot match the previous worst total of 15 achieved by Sunderland.

Fulham, who have been in the bottom three since December, have given themselves a great chance of staying up by beating Birmingham.

Midfielder Jimmy Bullard was again a key figure for the Cottagers and seven minutes after half-time his curling free-kick gave American Brian McBride the chance to head Fulham into the lead.

There were many frenzied moments at both ends before Fulham settled the issue three minutes from time.

A long ball upfield caught out Frank Queudre and Erik Nevland raced clear to blast past Maik Taylor.

Birmingham, now a point behind Reading and Fulham, finish their program with a home match against Blackburn next week.

They desperately need to find some form after a run of five winless matches.

Fulham will visit FA Cup finalists Portsmouth in their last match, and although Reading should have reasonable prospects of finishing with a win when they visit hapless Derby, they will have to score for the first time in seven league games.

Even though Tottenham were without Dimitar Berbatov, suffering from a groin injury, a goal from Robbie Keane was enough to give them their third league away win of the season. Berbatov had scored six times against Reading this campaign.

Ecuadorian winger Antonio Valencia made sure that Wigan would stay in the Premiership with a second-half double in a 2-0 win at Aston Villa.

It was a costly upset for Martin O'Neill's side, who may now miss out on fifth place and direct entry to next season's UEFA Cup.

The way is clear for Everton to achieve that by taking a point from their two remaining matches, away to Arsenal on Sunday and at home to Newcastle next Saturday.

Bolton as good as earned themselves another season in the top flight when they beat Sunderland 2-0. El-Hadji Diouf scored in the4 first half and Daryl Murphy headed into his own net in the 83rd minute.

Although Bolton's final fixture is at Chelsea they have a goal difference of minus 18.

Their points tally could only be equaled by Fulham (minus 23) and Reading (minus 29) E-mail to a friend