Time to cut out errors, says boss

Apr 21 2008 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

ROY Keane has warned his side they must bounce back from their crushing derby disappointment quickly if they want to secure their Premier League safety.

And the Black Cats boss is bracing himself for the loss of Phil Bardsley and Jonny Evans for next weekend’s crunch game with Middlesbrough.

Sunderland slumped to their second successive defeat at St James’s Park and Keane was left to repeat a familiar refrain in the aftermath of the game, bemoaning his team’s inability to start games well and their tendency to concede sloppy goals.

Keane felt his side were “nearly there” in terms of competing but felt they were not clinical enough in front of goal to match their North East rivals. And he believes his side must start to learn from the mistakes they are repeating or risk losing their top-flight status.

“You have to deal with setbacks in life and football – we’ve had a major one but we need to get ready for next weekend because we have to bounce back quickly,” he said. “Our players have to learn from the defensive mistakes – we can’t do the same against Middlesbrough, we just can’t.

“This makes next weekend such an important game now. We know the supporters will be very disappointed but hopefully we’ll be able to make it up for it next weekend. And, like I said before, there is still a lot of hard work left to do. We can’t be relying on what other teams do, as we’ve seen from what happened this weekend.

“The Premier League season takes plenty of twists and turns before it finishes and I’m sure it will continue to happen. What we need to do is to stop gifting teams goals because you just can’t afford to do it at this level.”

To increase the tension in the Sunderland camp they may have to plan for the crucial derby without two key members of their defence. The loss of Bardsley and Evans was keenly felt at St James’s Park yesterday but replacements Paul McShane and Danny Higginbotham may be retained if the young duo don’t recover in time.

Bardsley suffered a knee injury in the run-up to the game, while Evans was ruled out with a hamstring injury. And both injuries are serious enough to make them major doubts for the key relegation battle. “Hopefully they’ll be available but it’s a big ‘if’. I would say both of them are about 50-50,” said Keane.

Despite accepting that the loss of Evans and Bardsley had an impact, Keane believes his understudies are strong enough to carry the brunt of the relegation fight. One such fringe player was Liam Miller, handed a shock recall in midfield, who may have a further role to play in the season’s run-in.

“I said all along that Liam was available. He’s been in a few squads and I just fancied him. He’s trained well this week and he deserved his chance – just like Paul McShane and Danny (Higginbotham).

“They’ve trained well and I can’t fault any of the lads who’ve been left out and their reaction. Ian Harte, Michael Chopra, Paul, Danny and Liam – they are all good lads and they are the types of lads we need because they might be the difference over the next few weeks. I’ve told that to them and I thought they did the best they could today.”

Keane didn’t put the defeat solely down to the injuries but did admit it may have some bearing on the way the run-in goes for his under-pressure side. “I think the season is maybe catching up with some of the players,” he said. “A lot of players have played a lot of games this season and there are a lot of demands on a lot of young players. Sometimes the body just says, ‘I’ve had enough’, and they need a rest. It’s not great timing but we have to deal with it.”