Steve Bruce is keen to gatecrash City party

Oct 24 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

STEVE Bruce is desperate to spoil Carson Yeung’s first home match in charge of Birmingham City, but Sunderland’s manager insists it has nothing to do with putting one over on the Chinese billionaire who ended his eight-year association with the club.

Bruce takes a team to St Andrew’s for the first time since the uncertainty around Yeung’s failed takeover caused him to leave for Wigan Athletic. Just over a week ago Yeung completed his buy-out two years late, adding extra poignancy to Bruce’s return.

But he insists it is the need for his Black Cats to build on recent performances against Manchester United and Liverpool, not his history, which will motivate him today.

“It will mean more to me to win at Birmingham not just because of the past but because the team will be showing signs it is capable of going there (to the ‘next level’),” said Bruce.

The Wearsiders beat Liverpool last week and were an injury-time own goal from winning at Manchester United in their previous match. They have been the high points of a start which has also featured defeats at Stoke City and Burnley.

Lose this afternoon and the suspicion will be that Bruce’s team can rise to the big occasion but not perform at the so-called “lesser” sides.

It was a point Bruce has stressed more than anyone amid the recent feel-good factor.

“We will not get carried away because we have just played Liverpool and Manchester United,” Bruce promised. “We need to take those concentration levels and disciplines into the way we play against Birmingham. That will give

me as much pleasure as beating Liver-pool and drawing against Man U. We are delighted with the start but we have only played a quarter of the season.

“The reason I came back to the North East was for (days like last) Saturday. I had a mate at the game. I went to the bar to try to rescue him, but the bar was absolutely jumping and that was at 7.45. No one wanted to go home.

“It is just a matter of trying to manage their expectation levels, but I think we are on the right lines.”

Bruce makes no secret of his affection for Birmingham, having spent two years there as a player (pictured right) before returning for six as manager. He left after Yeung refused to ratify a new contract offered six months earlier.

“When I went there as a player I had come from Man United with slippers and dressing gowns and heated floors to getting changed in a tent and chasing ducks off the training pitch,” he recalled. “They leave a mess like dogs.

“Towards the end everything was about the takeover. We had just got back up and all they were interested in was the takeover and not the team.

“The Chinese guy (Yeung) put his deposit down and could not find the rest of the money for whatever reason. I just became embroiled in a mess. Once there is instability at the top there is a rippling effect. The players you are trying to bring in ask you what you are doing and I couldn’t answer that.”

The timing was not lost on Bruce. “It’s incredible isn’t it, what football throws up?” he said. “I hope for Alex (McLeish) and the supporters, the people that work the doors and the stewards that have been there for years, that the club can go forward. I had eight years there and that is a big chunk of my career.

“I met Carson Yeung just once. Different. That is all you need to say.”

Meanwhile, Black Cats defender Nyron Nosworthy has followed Trevor Carson in becoming the second player to agree a new deal this week. He has committed to the club until 2012.