STEVE Bruce has admitted the timing of Darren Bent's sale to Aston Villa was a mistake as his gamble to allow the disgruntled striker to leave in January backfired.

Sunderland’s win at Bolton has pushed the Black Cats back into contention for a top-10 finish, but Bruce knows the last couple of months have been a disaster because of his team’s injury problems and the loss of their top goalscorer.

He said: “It was awful and the timing of it was all wrong. At the time Fraizer Campbell was due back and he re-injured himself and Danny Welbeck was out for three months, a double whammy for us.

“Thankfully, we are in the Premier League. We need another point and I think that would be our third-best finish in 55 years so there’s been a little bit of improvement, despite the eight-nine game run which has been horrific.

“I didn’t think we were in any relegation danger after the Wigan win. The disappointment for me since January, eight games really. It was against the top six but the amount of injuries we’ve had, we’ve missed 10 players, arguably seven or eight of them would have played, so to come here and get the result proves we have got a little bit in depth. But the frustration is we have had serious injuries to Craig Gordon, Michael Turner, big Titus Bramble, Lee Cattermole, Welbeck, Asamoah Gyan, Campbell – the list is endless.

“It could have been one of those special seasons for us, but I still think we have made progress. We’ve got to keep making progress, that’s what football is, keep adding to the squad and I’m sure we’ll keep doing that.”