Bruce has time to sort Sunderland problems - our view
WELL, that'll teach me to open my big mouth about Stoke City and how they play the beautiful game.
Maybe I should have concerned myself with putting our own house in order first.
There have been plenty of different positives to take from our start to the new campaign.
But there has also been one main negative – our inability to deal with an aerial bombardment.
We saw it briefly against Bolton Wanderers on the opening day,it was all too apparent when we scraped home against Blackburn Rovers, and it was clearly evident against Stoke City at the weekend.
The difference was that in the first two games we picked up wins, despite struggling.
There was no such luck against the Potters, and to be fair we got what we deserved – nothing.
As expected, Tony Pulis' men relied on the long ball and Rory Delap's powerful throws, so much so that at one point former Black Cat Liam Lawrence had an opportunity to control the ball before crossing it in to the danger area, instead, he ducked under the ball to allow it to go out, for another Delap throw.
Like I said in Friday's column, it wasn't pretty to watch.
But let's get things straight, it wasn't Stoke or their style of play that was disappointing about the defeat at the Britannia Stadium, it was our performance.
To put it simply, we didn't turn up for the party in the second half.
And our problems dealing with the high ball into the area, weren't the only cause for concern.
We never really took the game to the Potters, as a result we didn't create too many clear cut openings, and those we did were dealt with fairly comfortably by City.
So, those of us on high after a fairly decent start to the season have been given a swift dose of reality (isn't that always the way it happens with Sunderland).
Still, it's not all doom and gloom and there's no need to start panicking.
Cats boss Steve Bruce has made it clear that he knows about the problem, and the indications are that he has already set the wheels in motion to rectify it.
That basically means that over the next couple of days there could be plenty of activity in the transfer window.
It seems that several players are heading out of the Stadium of Light, with one or two still to join Bruce's revolution.
I just hope that the wholesale changes don't have a detrimental effect and upset the balance of the squad.
Having said that I'm sure our future is in safe hands with Bruce and Eric Black.
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Weather for South Shields
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
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Temperature: 8 C to 19 C
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