Márton Fülöp: We need action not just words

May 5 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

MÁRTON Fülöp has warned Sunderland they are dicing with death as he condemned the standard of their recent performances and questioned the team’s attitude in a relegation battle.

Fülöp has been angered by the Black Cats’ failure to pull clear of the Premier League danger zone following a run of just one win in their last 10 games.

And the Hungarian claimed all their brave talk had proved to be cheap following the 2-0 home defeat by Everton.

Sunderland’s goalkeeper, who has returned to the side because of a knee injury to Craig Gordon, insisted the situation was unacceptable.

“Everyone keeps saying we are within touching distance of safety, but words are one thing and actually doing it is quite another,” said Fülöp, who has firmly established himself as a credible alternative to Scotland international and Black Cats record signing Gordon this season.

“It is not enough to just keep on talking about what we need to do – it is up to us as players to convert those words into actions now.

“I don’t think we played particularly well in the whole of the match (against Everton).

“The first half was probably better than the first, but I don’t think either was really acceptable. In the second half, they outplayed us.

“We can’t afford to play like that again. I said exactly the same thing after West Brom, but unfortunately we did the same

thing against Everton. That has to be it now, though. We are shooting ourselves in the foot, and we cannot keep doing that in the three games that remain.

“We just have to focus on our next game and try to forget about the table. If we win next weekend, the table will take care of itself. We need to look at our own performance first and not rely on the other teams getting bad results.”