Manchester United loanee Amad Diallo shone last night, but was unable to prevent Fulham knocking Sunderland out of the FA Cup.
Harry Wilson put Fulham in front with a smart, low finish into the bottom corner after being teed up by Carlos Vinícius.
Fulham dominated the opening 20 minutes and were good value for their lead.
However, Sunderland came into the game as the half wore on and Diallo was involved in everything good Sunderland did.
He had a low, swerving shot parried by Fulham keeper Rodak after 32 minutes.
However, that was as much as Sunderland could muster and it was 1-0 at half-time.
Sunderland responded in the second half and had several chances to equalise.
After 52 minutes Dan Neil shot just wide, and Patrick Roberts had a good strike saved by Rodak moments later after being set up by Diallo.
The Manchester United loanee, who has seven goals this season, had a shot cleared off the line on 55 minutes by Shane Duffy.
Fulham made it two after 59 minutes.
Patterson made a good save from Mitrovic, who did well to keep the ball from going out and set up Andreas Pereira, who made no mistake.
With a quarter of an hour to go Jack Clarke made it 2-1 with a lovely curled finish into the top corner.
Layvin Kurzawa restored Fulham’s two goal lead with eight minutes to go after Sunderland failed to clear a corner.
He finished well from a knockdown by Shane Duffy.
Jewison Bennette lifted the ball in from close range as the clock hit 90 minutes to make injury time awkward for Fulham, but they saw the game out well.
Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray said: “I think there was an opportunity for us tonight,”
“Even at 1-0 down, I thought we could get the next goal and they would rock and I could see us nicking it.
“But we didn’t, they got the next goal, and even though we got back into it we were always just a step behind them.
“I feel as though we gave a good account of ourselves over the two games.
“Even at 3-1, the fans stuck with the team and we got back into it again. The goals we conceded were frustrating.
“We don’t tend to give soft goals away and yet we did tonight against a high-quality team.
“When you are playing with midfield players as your highest attackers it is really difficult to get into those goalscoring areas.
“And yet we had a go and scored two goals against a Premier League side.
“We kept going, the fans kept the team going, we had a go and we will take the positives into Saturday.”
Fulham manager Marco Silva said: “They obligated us to play 180 minutes in this round. They made it difficult for us.
“And of course, congratulations to our players and our fans, because we are going to play in the fifth round, which was our clear goal from the first time we played against them at the Cottage.
“I think from the first minute we were the better team on the pitch.
“First 30 minutes we probably created enough chances to score the second goal and to be even more comfortable in the game.
“At 1-0, they are always going to believe, even at 2-0 they believed, and at 3-1 as well.
“We scored the second goal and, at that moment, everyone probably thought the game would be killed but, at this level, never.
“They believed until the end, they scored to make it 2-1, and even with our reaction to make it 3-1 they kept believing.
“It was a real FA Cup tie, with two teams playing to go through, but overall we were the best team.”
Fulham will play managerless Leeds in the next round.
For Sunderland, it’s back to their EFL Championship campaign with Reading the visitors on Saturday.
