Source: Eurosport
Bruce - Sunderland are still on track
Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has rubbished talk of a mini-crisis on Wearside despite his side suffering a difficult week on the pitch and in the treatment room.[LNB]A 2-1 loss at Birmingham last weekend was followed by a penalty shoot-out defeat by Aston Villa in the Carling Cup on Tuesday and heading into Saturday's visit of West Ham in the Barclays Premier League, the Black Cats boss has a number of injury concerns.[LNB]Bruce admitted he read the riot act to his side after they followed a well-deserved home win over Liverpool with a poor performance at St Andrew's last weekend but insists he has seen enough from his side recently to believe they are still on track.[LNB]"I thought we played really well against Villa on Tuesday and we were disappointed to go out," he said.[LNB]"Of the last four games we've played, against Villa, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester United (a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford) we have gone head to head with three of them, and played extremely well.[LNB]"The disappointing one for me was Birmingham but we're playing well at home and if we can get to 19 points with 10 games on the board that's a great start to the season and puts you on course to be in the top 10 quite comfortably. So we have to be pleased with that. It's a big, big game for us against West Ham."
