SUNDERLAND last night sacked Steve Bruce, with Martin O’Neill and Mark Hughes among the early favourites to succeed him as manager.

Bruce became the first Premier League boss to lose his job this season, after owner-chairman Ellis Short said “results have simply not been good enough”.

Bruce’s assistant Eric Black will take charge of the team for Sunday’s crucial game at Wolves.

But speculation has already begun to mount over who will replace Bruce on a permanent basis.

The Journal understands Hughes has let it be known he is interested in taking over from his former Manchester United team-mate.

Sources close to O’Neill – a Sunderland fan in his youth – last night claimed he is keen to return to management after 16 months out of the game.

And the lure of the vacancy is also expected to attract the attention of the likes of Rafa Benitez and Steve McClaren.

Bruce joined the Black Cats from Wigan Athletic in June 2009, and despite capitulations in the second half of each of his first two seasons at the helm, led the club to 13th in 2010 and 10th a year later.

However, following the sale of Darren Bent to Aston Villa in January, Sunderland have struggled chronically to score goals, and have won just three games at the Stadium of Light during 2011.

And it was there, on Saturday, that Bruce’s fate was finally sealed.

Having himself talked up a run of four fixtures – the last and next two – as ones his side should be winning, failure to beat Fulham was followed by defeat to then-bottom Wigan.

Despite urging patience among supporters in his match-day programme notes, Short did reveal himself to be “unhappy” with Sunderland’s league position.

And watching from the director’s box, he cannot fail to have been moved by the abuse meted out to Bruce – fans chanted ‘Bruce out’ and ‘You fat Geordie b*****d, get out of our club’ – following the Latics’ winner.

Though the fact that Bruce is Corbridge-born and North Tyneside-bred will have counted for little in his American employer’s thinking, witnessing such vitriol from so many of the club’s followers will have crystallised in Short’s mind the clear notion that, against the prejudice that comes with crossing the Tyne-Wear divide, support for Bruce would only ever be fleeting, and patience thin, when results did not go their way.

But it is those results – Bruce’s record at Sunderland reads 29 wins and 41 defeats from 98 games – which mattered most to the US businessman.

And mindful of the need to allow a new incumbent the chance to assess his squad before any transfer business in January’s window, Short believes now is the time for change.

“This has been a difficult time for everyone at Sunderland and is not a situation that any of us envisaged or expected to be in,” he said last night.

“It is my job as chairman to act in the best interests of our football club at all times and I can assure everyone that this is not a decision that I have taken lightly. Sadly results this season have simply not been good enough and I feel the time is right to make a change. Steve has acted with honesty and integrity throughout, which is testament to the character and commitment he has shown during his time at Sunderland.

“I would like to personally place on record my thanks to him for his significant contribution to our football club over the past two and a half years and everyone here at Sunderland naturally wishes him the very best for the future.

“I would also like to thank our fans, who have endured a trying start to the season. Their support continues to be the driving force behind our club and is vital as we now look to the future.”

Bruce given Short shrift following a poor run of results