John Mensah insists: I have joined Black Cats
Aug 21 2009 by Steve Brown, The Journal
Despite his own frustrating start to the season, Gordon has been encouraged by the way Sunderland have kicked off their Premier League campaign.
After a “great start” at the Reebok, defeat to Chelsea was far from unacceptable, and with three points out of six Gordon says he and his team-mates are looking forward to the visit of Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn side.
“The lads had a great start at Bolton, getting three points at the Reebok, which isn’t an easy place to go, thanks to a committed performance,” Gordon said.
“Three points from two games is a reasonable start and I think we have to be satisfied with that even though the defeat to Chelsea wasn’t what we were looking for. Chelsea had a good night and sometimes you have to accept that and move on to the next game. Their first goal was critical on the night as they got on top of us – as soon as a team like Chelsea begin to do that they will punish you.
“Everyone in the camp is looking forward to the Blackburn game and I think that’ll be a very similar one to Bolton.
“They’ll probably play a more direct style of football and we must stand up and do that. We showed at Bolton that we’re up for a scrap and I think this game will be no different.”
Meanwhile, Grant Leadbitter insists he is unperturbed by the summer arrival of Lorik Cana and Lee Cattermole, and is relishing the challenge of winning a place in Sunderland’s midfield and helping the club climb the table. “It doesn’t bother me to see the players come in that have come in, there’s been players linked with this club all through the summer,” said Leadbitter, the subject of a £3m offer from Wigan when Steve Bruce was Latics manager.
“If better players are brought in then it is only going to help the team. That’s good for us all. Competition has been here for the last couple of years and that will continue.
“All the fans have been hearing the plans for the club for the last few years and now we need to start doing it.
“We want to finish as high up the table as we can and attract a few more top players in. Players are ambitious and we all want to finish top ten this season.
“If we can deliver that in the manager’s first year it will be an improvement.”
