Bruce’s Banter from Brighton: ‘I took Carling Cup seriously’

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Needing to make an impression for once in the Carling Cup, the manager of an ambitious Premier club names three strikers, with transfer fees that could rise to £27m, in his squad to visit a newly promoted Championship side.

So far, so good. Trouble is they’re all on the bench when the game starts. Not until the 52rd minute is one of them sent on, to be joined with only minutes left of normal time by a second and, believe it or not, deep into extra time by the third and and most costly. No smirking, please, at the first sentence of Steve Bruce‘s e-mail …


Dear Colin,

My overriding emotion is one of disappointment because I’ve said all along we take cup competitions extremely seriously and we put out a team that mirrored that.

But like today and Saturday, if you don’t take chances when they come along you leave yourself open.

We knew it would be difficult going down to Brighton who are playing in a new stadium and have had a great start to the season.

We need to take our chances because otherwise we leave ourselves vulnerable and that proved to be the case.

Brighton get the ball down and play and are good in possession. You can see why they’re doing so well.

We had long spells of possession, especially during the first half, but we need to take those chances.

The goal was sloppy – bad defending. We switched off and were punished for it.

If you don’t score, you don’t win football matches and at the moment that’s where we’re lacking.

All the best,


Steve Bruce

12 thoughts on “Bruce’s Banter from Brighton: ‘I took Carling Cup seriously’”

  1. agree with more or less everything stated on this forum! 90% fans arent pacified by Bruce’s comments! The man is a pillock no brains What on earth can u expect to field a team without a proven striker appalling’ also What must the new players think (whickham,JI) i actually think we could be in a relegation battle this season unbelievable..

  2. Nobody could accuse Short of a knee jerk reaction. He has sat and watched the team lose, and lose and fail to score goals and lose and a manager active in the transfer market but unable to bring in a proven goalscorer. No need to jerk the knee. I very much doubt whether the owner is going to put up with any more of this.

  4. The signs were there in pre-season that we could not score goals, and yet nothing has changed, we approach the brighton game with a defensive formation, and play one up front. I am not one for shouting manager out every time we lose a game but I have to question the team selection, and SB’s ability to motivate his team! We seriosly lack creativity and spirit!! I can’t see us improving unless the team is changed, we need to drop AF,KR,elmo and change the midfield around. If we don’t get a win at Swansea, which I don’t think we will then Mr Quinn needs to do some serious thinking!

  5. Let’s not gloss over the fact that if Brightn had taken their chances this could have been a rout.Bruce the Excuse is abysmal.
    To sack him would not be a knee jerk reaction but the painfull realisation that he’s just not up to the job.
    The board need to grow a set and rid us of this incompetent numpty.

  6. What a load of s****. No strikers on from the start so why did he buy connor wickham for. to make hit sit there when he could have done it against brighton and we get to see what he is about. Bruce your a joke and clueless!!!

  7. sky sports! Ellis short has demanded a meeting this morning’ flying in for talks hardly suprising Bruce spent a fortune’and his comments after match dont add up half chances we had

  8. This excellent summary was posted by Rob Hutchinson, seen often in these parts, at the Blackcats list:

    No chance of Bruce either walking or being puhsed in my opinion. He’ll tough it out, and neither Quinn nor Short are knee jerkers.

    Tough trying to get balance on last night; 1205 of us were absolutely disgusted with what we saw. Brighton held good possession for decent periods, and passed the ball out from the back whenever they could, with players hugging either wing which stretched us. Elmo was dreadfully at fault for the goal lettings Mikail Smith stroll in at the far post and nod home. We did have opportunitites but without the finishers to put them to bed.

    A couple of things of note. Westwood is very very vocal in goal. Communicating almost every second with his defenders shouting, gesticulating, organising; etc, Can’t say I remember a Sunderland goalie as vocal in the past. Providing, there are no howlers he’ll be No.1 pretty quicky I think, although tonight you could see he was still finding his feet.

    Ji and Wickham looked better tonight, and had either of them started we may well have seen the game off. The formation expecting the goals to come from Sess and a.n.other was a disgrace for me, and patronising to Brighton.I think we only got in behind them a couple of times in the 120 minutes and as with the toon on Saturday, the chances were spurned.

    Bruce’s post match email was offensive in meekness missed the point completely for me. A week to buy a striker for me, and some decent width would be nice.

    Lastly, the Amex is a lovely ground, great views from everywhere, really good atmosphere, decent stewarding, it worked. Shame Jim Minton’s pie was so dry, but frankly we do have greater things to worry about.

    Deflated, and the glass ain’t half full this morning.

  9. Bruce is on thin ice i dont dont think fans will put up with much more Bruce to me lacks sense’ whickham and ji on bench again’ Bruce must feel they arent up to the job fans will be singing for Bruce out next week if we lose. I know 3 who most definately arent up to it Ferdinand,Richardson,elmo, move em on!

  11. END OF LAST SEASON

    We needed a fullback, a winger and a proven striker. We have a manager obsessed with buying midfield players. Beginning of this season we need a fullback, a winger and a proven striker, yet we have by our standards spent a fortune.

    We still have an attack with no teeth, if this continues we will have a manager with no head. The axe is, as I write, being removed from it’s red velvet cover, prior to dusting off and the whetstone is ready to put a fine edge on the blade.

    Tic Toc Brucie.

  12. Other websites report this as a ‘shock’ defeat. Not to me it isn’t. I’ve said it before, Bruce has an obsession with midfielders and hasn’t replaced Bent since January with a proven scorer. So, surprise surprise, after struggling to score in pre season, we are struggling to score now.

    Either Bruce gets a striker befiore the end of the transfer window or we will be fighting relegation and i;ll be putting a tenner on Bruce being sacked before christmas.

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