Steve Bruce’s pre-match BBC Newcastle interview ended with him protesting he had been misrepresented in his views on Sunderland supporters. If the smarter move might have been to admit his own words have sometimes been ill-chosen, most of us would accept public relations gaffes if more of the post-match e-mails were talking about wins. Tonight Bruce, rightly under pressure, is able to savour a good away victory – and guess who got a great cheer from the away support at the final whistle?
Dear Colin,
I’d like to start by saying a special thank-you to the supporters.
There’s not many clubs who’d bring more than 4,000 to an away match when their team could have been around the bottom at 5pm.
The fans gave us some fantastic support and the players responded to that. They’ve gone home happy today which I’m delighted about.
You could see what it meant at the end. We’re all in this together.
We’ve got the nucleus of a decent squad which is very capable of doing what we want to do, which is to compete in the top half of the best league in the world.
When I look at my bench today and who was playing, for me we’ve improved enormously from where we were a couple of years ago.
I told the players at half time to calm down and let me do the worrying. I wanted them to try and enjoy it.
Both teams looked nervous and edgy in the first half and I wanted to take the shackles off a bit. Thankfully we did that in the second half.
I can’t remember ever coming to a Barclays Premier League game and dominating like we did in the second half – it was terrific to see.
We’ve tried Stephane [Sessegnon] off the front man in the past and he didn’t manage to score, and now when we move him wide he comes up with a goal.
It was a great finish – he turned on a sixpence and lashed it home. When Stephane doesn’t have time to think he’s onto it like a flash.
He really ripped it into the net which was great to see.
Meanwhile, Nicklas [Bendtner] has had a good start. He had probably his quietest game today but when the ball came to him there was never any doubt that he’d stick it in the back of the net.
All the Best,
Steve Bruce
Davey,
I am assuming the thumbs down came from you. The ABB is not a witch hunt and all credit to SB when it is merited, eqally however the opposite when that too is merited. If he continues with results like this then all well and good but one result with a positive selection does not herald the start of a new dawn for SB, we need further evidence that lessons have been learned and that he is capable of changing his ways.
Agree with you 100% on Man Utd fans though, welcome to our world where success is hard to come by and rare but we keep turning up in complete disprportion to our success.
Lets hope we can kick on from here. If West Brom can get a result away to Villa we should fancy oursleves to get a draw at the very least next weekend. I just hope we dont see the team get into the habbit of winning a game and thinking they can relax in the next. Thats how Birmingham got sucked into and ultimately succumbed to a relegation battle last year. We need to do the best with what we’ve got and hopefully pick up a good left back and centre back in January. If we can defend properly we have a good chance of making up lost ground, but we look comical at times when we have sustained pressure on our 18 yard box.
4,000 fans got behind Bruce and the team – and what a difference it makes . Granted Bruce started with a team that we have been willing him to try all season – but give the guy a bit of slack now you ABB
Can’t believe Man U fans walking out with 20 mins to go – welcome to the real world – but not a great attitude considering the achievements of the team and manager – walk away just when they really need support
Well done, a convincing second half performance. May be a performance to muddy the waters yet again about SB and his manegerial capabilities but three points non the less.
We need a similar scoreline for next week but with a good performance both halves. Persistency is the name of the game. SB’s attacked minded approach produced dividends, we won’t win every game like this, but we will more than we lose.
Results breeds confidence, confidence encourages performance, performance keep the players and fans happy – and managers in their job.
Still much to do, could be yet another false dawn, but SB;s head is still on chopping block, only he can remove it by building convincingly on this.
Well done for today Stevo…. Just let’s not get carried away and let’s stuff DAZZA B£nt next week. Ha’Way the lads!!!!!!