Bruce insists Black Cats deserved Reds victory

Oct 18 2009 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

He said: “These things can happen in a lot of games. It’s a bad situation for us that the [beach] ball was in the middle and was influential but again I will say we didn’t play well – that’s the main thing for me.”

Sunderland came within 90 seconds of beating Manchester United at Old Trafford in their previous game before having to settle for a 2-2 draw, and Bruce says these last two results show just how far the Black Cats have come this season.

Bruce said: “The result at Man U gave everybody a lift and, but for that late equaliser at Old Trafford, we would have beaten two of the top teams in Europe.

“The confidence is there for all to see - let’s hope we can maintain it.

“One of the reasons why I came here was for days like this - there was a great crowd, a great atmosphere.”

The only downside for Bruce were the injuries to midfielder Lee Cattermole and striker Kenwyne Jones, who were both stretchered off in the second half.

And he likened the possibility of losing those two players for an extended period to Liverpool’s struggle without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, both of whom missed out yesterday through injury.

He said: “Kenwyne has gone to hospital with his ankle injury and I know that when Lee Cattermole wants to come off, there is something wrong with him - we think he might have damaged his medial ligament.

“The injuries to those two have been the only downside to what has otherwise been a great day for the club.

“We’re just waiting to find out how bad they are because Cattermole and Jones are our equivalent of Liverpool’s Gerrard and Torres.”

Bruce also praised the performance of skipper Lorik Cana, who started in midfield but moved to centre-back for the second half and turned in a man of the match performance.