Bruce: Cats must handle the edginess

Feb 7 2010 by Darren Kelso, Sunday Sun

STEVE BRUCE says Sunderland have to conquer their nerves before they can start to pull away from the bottom three.

The Black Cats’ 1-1 draw with Wigan, Kenwyne Jones cancelling out Mohamed Diame’s first-half strike, means they remain 14th, but only four points above the relegation zone.

Bruce said: “I thought we started off OK but as soon as Wigan scored we were nervous, we were edgy and we have to be able to handle those nerves and that edginess better than we are doing at the moment.

“Whatever confidence is, once you lose a bit of it you become a bit nervous and edgy.

“It was there for everybody to see. We stopped doing the basics. We have to take the ball, try to pass it and keep on doing the right things. In the first half, we went away from that and just started lumping it up the pitch.

“In the second half, we were much, much better – that was the positive. But, to be fair, we couldn’t have been any worse than we were in the first!”

Bruce was hoping for wins against Stoke last Monday and then Wigan yesterday to put distance between Sunderland and the drop zone, but a return of just two points has done little to help the Black Cats’ situation.

They now head to basement side Portsmouth hoping to secure their first win in 11 league games.