Time for SAFC to prove their worth

Nov 14 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

SUNDERLAND’S players have been told the time for talking is over and now they must start living up to the pre-season hype.

It was perhaps no coincidence that no Black Cats players were available to talk to the Press after Wednesday’s Carling Cup exit at the hands of Blackburn Rovers, preferring to focus on tomorrow’s Premier League game away to the same opponents.

The 2-1 reverse was the Wearsiders’ fourth in succession. They have never lost five in a row under Roy Keane and the Irishman has put the onus on his players to make sure that remains the case tomorrow.

Keane has been fiercely protective of his players recently, professing himself content with performances if not results, but he has challenged them to turn their form around at Ewood Park.

“I could talk all I want with the media and the players could talk all they want, but it is what we do on the pitch,” he said. “That is where the players will do their talking. It is not necessarily about me giving beautiful speeches to them all the time or lifting their spirits. It is always about looking at yourself and asking what you can give for this football club over the next few weeks and months.

“I do not think over the last few days the players have done too much wrong. I am not frustrated and angry in that sense, just hoping we can turn that corner because the longer it goes on, the pressure builds and builds.”

The pressure is also on the Black

Cats boss. He was barracked on Wednesday and his transfer record is again under scrutiny. But by putting Sunderland’s current form into perspective with last season’s relegation battle, he demonstrated how the club has progressed.

“Last year we had one spell when we had one win in 13 (between August and November),” he recalled. “We have known worse times but you tend to forget how bad that was.

“It feels raw but the beauty of football is there is another game around the corner so I have to use all my experience and my short experience as a manager to try and drill that into the players.

“But I looked at the players after the game and thought, ‘Come on lads, let’s get ready for Saturday’. The response was very encouraging.

“I do believe it can change very, very quickly. If we lose on Saturday, I am pretty sure we will be bottom but if we win, we will be mid-table.”

Sunderland could be tenth on Sunday evening, though it would take a draw between Fulham and Tottenham and an eight-goal margin of victory in Lancashire. They would have to lose heavily while West Bromwich Albion took a point or more from Chelsea at the Hawthorns to go bottom.

Nevertheless, it was not the start many were expecting after another big-spending summer. Keane believes injuries to Craig Gordon, Kenwyne Jones and, more recently, George McCartney, have been his side’s undoing. “We do miss George, Craig and one or two others. George did a bit of running in training on Thursday but a Premier League game two days later is asking a lot,” he said. “It has been hard to get a settled XI. We have not been able to do that because of the injuries. That is not making excuses, I try not to do that.

“I should be doing better as a manager but I also know the players should not be criticised because if anything it does go down to the manager.”

Keane rated McCartney’s chances of facing Rovers as “80-20” against and Gordon’s as “70-30 against” before mischievously adding: “but sometimes you have to take a gamble.”

FA Cup-winning right-back Dick Malone and centre-back Nyron Nosworthy will be signing copies of Sunderland’s latest book, Cult Heroes, in the club’s Stadium of Light store on Tuesday, from 5-6pm. The book focuses on 10 players who earned cult status on Wearside.