Upwardly mobile Roy puts Bruce in his place

THE contrast between the two men prowling the respective technical areas couldn’t have been more stark.

While a string of increasingly stale-sounding excuses is all Steve Bruce can manage, Roy Hodgson simply manages, and how.

West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland are clubs heading in opposite directions, and it’s hard to divorce their vastly differing fortunes over the past two months from the effectiveness — or otherwise — of the two men who pick the teams.