Sunderland Football Club News

• Nickname:Black Cats
• Founded:1879
• Manager:Martin O'Neill

• Ground:Stadium of light
• Capacity:48,353

Bruce: We weren't good enough

17 Jan 2010 - 11:06:34

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Sunderland manager Steve Bruce accepted that his side's performance had been far from good enough after they were thrashed 7-2 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The Black Cats fell behind just eight minutes in and never recovered, with goals from Bolo Zenden and Darren Bent mere consolations on a terrible afternoon in the capital.

Bruce admitted afterwards: "It's disappointing when I'm here and have to face the music - we simply weren't good enough.

"I don't want to make excuses, but we can't cope with the number of players we've got missing.

"You could see we were sadly lacking defensively and we've come up against a very good Chelsea team.

"The manner of the defeat is disappointing and we hope we can get a few back on the pitch to give us a kick-start next week.

"We weren't good enough to compete. From the first five or ten minutes we were all over the place defensively, we weren't settled.

"It's important we respond to it. We've had our backsides kicked and no-one enjoys it, so we'll go back to the training ground, work hard and try and get over it as best we can.

"Making excuses is not my nature, but we need players back on the pitch."