Chance to win a trophy for fans is too good to miss

Sep 22 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

STEVE Bruce will never take the Carling Cup lightly as a manager as it may realistically be the only trophy he ever gets the chance to win at Sunderland.

Although the Premier League is going to be the mainstay of Bruce’s football diet on Wearside, the Carling Cup is regarded as more than just a tasty snack this season.

And, while he will make changes against Birmingham City in order to give some players a rest and others a chance to impress in the aftermath of defeat at Burnley, a cup run is one of his main priorities in his first season at the Stadium of Light.

He said: “A few years ago, the whole emphasis was to stay in the Premier League when I was with Birmingham. Is that enough for a supporter? Or would they like a cup run?

“But, as I’ve been saying since I took this job, there is more ambition than that at Sunderland. Every supporter would love a cup run, I’m sure Sunderland’s would.

“Realistically it’s what we can win. The big boys don’t play their big teams until the later stages and if the draw is favourable, who knows how far we can go?

“Finishing in the top eight in the Premier League is a big achievement as a manager, but we are all trying to lift a trophy, it’s just very difficult in football now.”

Meanwhile, Phil Bardsley has admitted the players need to work their way back into Bruce’s good books after such a poor second-half performance at Turf Moor.

Bardsley could be one of the players who has something to prove after that game, particularly as he was inherited by Bruce, rather than signed over the summer.

He said: “Now we’ll look forward, we’ve got a game on Tuesday and a game at the weekend, so we’ve got a chance to put things right straight away. Even though it’s the Carling Cup, we’ve got to try and get a result there, and then we’ve obviously got Wolves on Sunday, which is a massive game for us.

“These are games we need to win. Birmingham haven’t started the season too well but that won’t make it easy, they’ll be hard to break down and hard to beat.

“We want to do well in the Premier League – but it would be nice to have a bit of a cup run.”