Darren Bent: Our sent-off stars are forgiven

Feb 12 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

SUNDERLAND striker Darren Bent says Lee Cattermole and David Meyler have already been forgiven for their south coast moments of madness.

The midfield pair were castigated for their “indefensible” sendings off by boss Steve Bruce after the nine-man Sunderland eventually buckled in stoppage time to concede a last-gasp equaliser at rock-bottom Portsmouth.

But Bent said there were no recriminations in the dressing room as he urged Sunderland to “move on” and stay positive in their battle to pull away from the relegation zone.

“At the end of the day you can’t have any arguments with the decisions. We have got to be better than that,” he said.

“Catts and Meyler will put their hands up. We’re not going to hold that against them, everyone makes mistakes and we have to move on from it.

“I know it’s crunch time at the moment and we’re trying to eradicate those mistakes, but at the end of the day we’re all human and everyone makes mistakes.

“We know we have to roll our sleeves up and dig in. The main thing is everyone stays positive and keeps the faith.”

The 17-goal striker returned to goalscoring form at Portsmouth and there have been signs that his partnership with Kenwyne Jones is starting to come to the boil again – however, it is yet to manifest itself in the wins that the Black Cats desperately need.

Sunderland now have a free weekend before heading to Arsenal, who still harbour outside hopes of winning the title.

The players will reassemble next week and it is clear that tightening up all over the pitch is a major priority.

“We have got to address our issues on the pitch,” Bent told Sunderland’s official website.

“We’re far too open at the moment and

I think it’s a problem. We’re not defending well as a team and if we want to start kicking on and pushing up the league we need to defend better as a team.

“It’s not just on defenders and midfielders, it’s on the whole team. Strikers need to communicate better with the midfielder and defenders, as well as the goalkeeper. It’s a thin line at the moment.”

The Black Cats will be without Jordan Henderson – who is still awaiting the results of a scan on his injured ankle – Andy Reid, Meyler and Cattermole as Bruce confronts a midfield injury crisis.

It has placed huge demands on a small squad and Bruce admits he may “assess” his decision to run with a pared down playing staff at the end of the season.

Although he defends his decision to cull the squad he inherited from Ricky Sbragia, he admits it was a “drastic” overhaul and says a final judgement on whether to increase numbers will be taken after the conclusion of the campaign.

“I think there's something like 23 players gone which is a huge turnover. We're talking about young players as well.

“There's been a huge turnaround but I looked at the squad and personally, I thought it was too big. I didn't want to carry 32 players. I'd rather have a smaller squad with a bit more quality than 32.

“It has been drastic and when I look at it I wonder 'Has it been too drastic?' Maybe, I don't know.

“But we'll judge it and assess it at the end of the season.”

Sunderland should have Kieran Richardson and Anton Ferdinand back in contention however, with Bruce looking forward to the return of a defender who has been out since the start of December.

“The one thing you do look for is to keep playing the line-ups that have done well for us and to be fair to Anton, we have done well with him in the team,” he said. “We've missed him, we've missed Richardson as well.”