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Wimbledon's hopes of staying in Division One are hanging by a thread after Marcus Stewart broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time.

The Dons need a victory to avoid relegation but Stewart gave the Black Cats a deserved lead when he headed in from a tight angle after Julio Arca blasted the ball into the ground following a Matt Piper corner.

The home side enjoyed the better of the early exchanges as Wayne Gray and James Puncheon sent in a couple of testing crosses, but it was the visitors who carved open the first chance of the game after eight minutes.

Piper cut inside Dean Lewington on the right flank and cut the ball back perfectly for Stewart from the byline, but the Black Cats striker spooned his shot over the crossbar.

Piper nearly opened the scoring a few minutes later when his third successive corner came straight back to him.

Piper once again cut inside a defender and unleashed a fierce left-footed shot which was well saved by Scott Bevan, with Stewart waiting to pounce.

The Black Cats, showing five changes to the side that lost to Millwall in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, were starting to turn the screw but Kevin Kyle was in a wasteful mood.

First the Sunderland striker headed Piper's near-post corner over and then side-footed a great opportunity wide after Stewart did well to hold up the ball.

The former Ipswich marksman then set up Kyle once more but Dons defender Harry Ntimban-Zeh made a superb goalline clearance to deny him.

Kyle had another golden opportunity to open the scoring moments later, but his toe-poked effort was once again cleared off the line.

Wimbledon, who delayed relegation with a shock win at Wigan on Saturday, took until the 28th minute to create a chance but Puncheon's long-range strike drifted wide of the target.

The Dons were enjoying a rare spell of pressure towards the end of the half after forcing three corners, but Stewart struck to leave Stuart Murdoch's men needing to score at least twice to stay in the first division.

	Related stories: FT: Wimbledon 1 Sunderland 2 21:57 Tuesday 6th April 2004 Preview: Wimbledon v Sunderland 16:45 Monday 5th April 2004 More related stories

	Check for more on: Sunderland Wimbledon English First Division Soccer

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