Two months ago Steve Bruce was being asked questions about qualifying for Europe – now he is fighting to justify his position as Sunderland manager. Chief sports writer Luke Edwards argues the swing in public opinions is far too harsh.

BY his own admission Steve Bruce is big enough, ugly enough and experienced enough to cope with the criticism battering Sunderland since last weekend’s abject home defeat to West Brom.

After ten years in the job, Bruce’s shoulders are broad, his chin is strong and his skin is thick, yet there is only so much anyone can take before the sharp comments and pointed barbs start to sting.

Bruce will continue to take the blows that come his way and he will continue to protect his players from the worst of the attacks, but there is no question he has been hurt by what has happened.

“I hope it’s me who takes the criticism,” said Bruce, who has found to his cost that the squad he built last summer does not have enough strength in depth in key areas to cope with sustained injury problems.

“I hope the players are left alone to do the job and if it is me to take the flak, so be it. I have been in the game a long time and it does not have too much of an effect on me to be honest.

“It’s not very nice, but it is part and parcel of it and I knew when I came here and I do not regret it one little bit. It is a difficult, difficult job here for a lot of reasons.

“You need to have a certain type here. I could quite easily have stayed at Wigan, there is no criticism of Roberto Martinez, is there? It is what it is.

A few weeks ago, Sunderland looked like the most improved team in the Premier League and Bruce was being hailed a hero, but seven defeats in eight games has shifted opinions and completely changed the end-of-season agenda.

Instead of an outside chance of qualifying for Europe, the Black Cats are now relegation outsiders, shorn of belief, drained of confidence.

They are bruised and battered, a bedraggled bunch limping their way towards the finishing line hoping they have enough of a lead to prevent them being caught at the end of the race. If last season’s mid-winter slump could be written off as an aberration, the excusable dip in form from a team in transition and a manager trying to get to grips with a new club, this year’s has come as more of a shock and is not so easily smoothed over with ever-expectant supporters.

And Bruce – who signed a three-year contract extension earlier this year – knows it.