Bruce: Buck stops with me

Sunderland 0 Fulham 0
By Jason Mellor

Monday, March 01, 2010

SO much for the North-East doubling its presence in the Premier League next season.

Newcastle appear certain to end their one-year exile of the top flight, but at this rate, Sunderland will be among the trio of sides heading in the opposite direction in May.

Let’s examine the scant positives first. A share of the spoils from a contest which if anything plumbed even greater depths than the tepid stalemate here with Stoke earlier this month, re-establishes their three-point cushion on the relegation places. "If I’m honest, I can’t say a lot about a match like that," Steve Bruce admitted after his side were jeered off in the wake of a 14th Premier League game without victory. "We need a break, but I must admit we were edgy, and resorted to lumping the ball up the pitch. We should have handled it better."

Bruce added: "Listen, I am the manager, the buck stops with me. I have brought five or six of them to the club and anything that’s levelled at any of them, it is my job to try to protect them if I can, which I will do.

"But the one thing I am not going to do is shy away from it. I always knew it was going to be difficult. I think I have been decent at the job in the past and I am convinced I am still right to do it."

The fixture computer is doing its best to help Sunderland escape a predicament they find themselves in thanks to a three-month winless streak, with this the first of four consecutive home games against a Fulham side without a Premier League away victory since the opening day and drained by a lengthy return trip to the Ukraine in the Europa League.

The hosts quickly managed to negate such advantages, and never looked capable of recording their first three-point return since late November. Had an unmarked Bobby Zamora not made a hash of a clear early header from an inviting Simon Davies centre, the post-match abuse aimed the way of Bruce would have been even more hurtful.

"I keep expecting us to hit the wall," Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager conceded after his side’s 44th game of the season. "I was concerned that if ever a game was going to take its toll it'd be this."

MATCH RATING: * – There were virtually no redeeming factors from this drab contest.

REFEREE: Martin Atkinson 6 – Little to trouble the official in terms of controversy.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, March 01, 2010