Norwich holds off Sunderland to win 2-1 in EPL

NORWICH, England (AP) -Norwich withstood a second-half fightback by struggling Sunderland to claim a 2-1 win in the Premier League on Sunday, extending its unbeaten run to eight matches.

Cameroon center back Sebastien Bassong poked in from close range to put Norwich ahead in the eighth minute, with midfielder Anthony Pilkington making it 2-0 in the 37th with an unforgiving finish.

Sunderland hit back through Craig Gardner's low strike from outside the area in the 44th and applied heavy pressure after the break, with Gardner hitting the post, Matt Kilgallon missing an open goal and Stephane Sessegnon denied in a one-on-one situation.

However, Norwich hung on to seal a fourth straight win at Carrow Road and remain undefeated since the start of October.

"We've shown how strong we are again,'' said Pilkington, who scored Norwich's winner against Manchester United at home two weeks ago. "It's a massive win for us . it's a good place to be at the moment.''

While Norwich climbed a place to 12th, Sunderland remained fourth from bottom with just two wins from 14 games. Worse for the Martin O'Neill's side, top scorer Steven Fletcher failed to come out for the second half because of injury.

"We just couldn't get that little bit of luck that we needed,'' said O'Neill, whose position has been questioned by some after the team's poor start. "There were glaring opportunities for us and we spurned the lot of them. In the second half, it was one-way traffic.''