Phil Brown’s comments motivated Black Cats to win

Apr 20 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

ANTON Ferdinand has defended the contribution of Sunderland’s big- money buys this season – and claimed Hull City boss Phil Brown "disrespecting" the Black Cats’ players provided the motivation for the vital victory over their fellow strugglers.

Ferdinand, a £9m buy from West Ham in the summer, was one of a number of expensive signings sanctioned by the Black Cats board in the hope of the club establishing itself in the top half of the Premier League.

However, it has not worked out that way – and in his pre-match Press conference, South Shields-born Brown expressed his surprise, given Sunderland’s considerable pre-season outlay, at their lowly position.

Those comments were spun by several national tabloids, with one implying Brown had effectively branded Sunderland a "spent force" – drawing a furious response from the Black Cats’ players.

Ricky Sbragia stuck the piece up in the dressing room for the players to see and an angry Ferdinand even confronted the Hull boss about it afterwards.

The seething defender said the comments had provided "big motivation" for himself and some of Sunderland’s other recruits, including Andy Reid and Craig Gordon.

"It is unfair to say we’ve not been value for money," Ferdinand said.

"That’s what he feels otherwise he wouldn’t have said it – that’s football, though. People have their own opinions. We rose to the occasion though and used it as ammo.

"It was a big motivation for me. It definitely gave me motivation. And it angered all of the lads when we saw it pinned on the wall.

"For someone who has not seen me play week in, week out to make comments like that – it was a bit out

of order. That’s the way it goes, that’s life. It worked in a good way for us, though. We came off the pitch with our heads held high, with the three points and that’s all that matters."

It was a theme picked up by Sbragia in his post-match Press conference, with the normally placid Scot revealing his frustration at Brown for talking about his players out of turn.

"It did anger me. I think there are too many managers who talk about other clubs and they should just concentrate on their own," he said. "I’ve got no previous with Phil. I’ve enjoyed his company, been to the races with him, but I was a little bit annoyed with him.

"We just put the cuttings around the dressing room. I’ve seen Sam (Allardyce) doing it many times, because Bolton used to get criticised all the time. I thought we’d do it. The newspaper cuttings really helped us, to be truthful."

But despite the victory, Ferdinand believes that Sunderland are still far from safe. A visit to West Brom represents another must-win game next weekend, and the Black Cats defender is predicting more twists and turns in the relegation fight before the season. "It’s not job over yet. We can’t think we’re safe until the season is over," he said. "Our job has to be to get as high up the league as we possibly can. We can’t think ‘We’ve won again’ and we’re out of it – it’s not going to be like that."

"We’ve got to use this as a spring and go on and win games."

Meanwhile, Sbragia revealed that the decision to bench Kieran Richardson was taken because he was only 80% fit and had been ruled out as late as Friday night.

"He wasn’t fit on Friday," Sbragia said. "If I’d started him, I think he would probably have been injured, but he wanted to be involved, he wanted to be sub, so it was an ideal situation."