Premier League - Sbragia slams defending

Eurosport - Tue, 19 May 11:35:00 2009

Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragia blamed 'unacceptable' defending for his relegation-threatened side's 3-1 defeat at Portsmouth.

2008-2009 Sunderland Anton Ferdinand - 0

Paul Hart: "The first half was a bit like watching paint dry, but we injected a little bit of life in the second half. Obviously it's been a very hard season - there's a lot of tired legs, but they pushed themselves over the line. Sunderland battled right to the death, there were a few good saves from our keeper."

(On his own future at the club): "We're concentrating on this (the football) and we've got another game left. We really do want to finish as high as we possibly can. I'm contracted to this club anyway for the next two years so it's immaterial. It's a good job to have, it's a great club and I'm sure there'll be a lot of people fancying it. I've been employed to do this job. It was very specific - one day, one game... then it became until the end of the season and myself and my staff have really focused on that."

Ricky Sbragia: "Anton's obviously held up his hand. It's happening too often in general - we play well, we think we're sort of in charge of the game. We knew in the second half they'd push on to us and close us down. but we got off to a good start. Kenwyne (Jones) scored and from then on we should have been a bit more confident and bossed the game. We kept the lead for two minutes, and that's not acceptable.

"The second goal was a bad mistake by Anton (Ferdinand, pictured). He switched off. I would imagine he should have just put his foot through it and helped it on. From then on I thought we played reasonably well. We left ourselves open late on - we were obviously trying to go for the equaliser."

Eurosport

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  1. Poor, poor, Championship football, here we­ come.
    Franwal

    From Francis W, on Thu 21 May 3:11AM

  2. All three north east clubs deserve to go down. Being a­ sunderland fan myself, i feel we have the worse squad­ and play s h i t e football,
    If you support Newcastle­ or Boro i bet theres not one of you's who think you­ deserve to stop up.
    Weather we stop up or go down, I­ will be at the S.O.L. next season cheering the lads on.­ Its in my blood, wish i could say the same about the­ players

    From scott, on Wed 20 May 1:23PM

  3. ian m
    you needed a WIN, a draw would only have taken­ you 3 points ahead of NUFC and 2 above hull - not­ enough to guarantee safety, especially bearing in mind­ that you'll get zip from Chelsea.

    From cameron w, on Tue 19 May 6:36PM

  4. Truth of the matter is the defence gave away three­ points tonight, not Sbragia.

    From Peter, on Tue 19 May 5:52PM

  5. cant believe ..we needed a draw and get totally­ stuffed. . . this is the first and only time i will be­ cheering for man utd. if they dont beat hull on sunday­ ..then there should be a stewards enquiry !!!!

    lets­ get a big time foreign coach in and start to do the job­ properly .
    why cant we just have mid table mediocrity­ ...

    From ian m, on Tue 19 May 5:14PM

  6. What a sad mess for Sunderland. We got rid of a good­ manager [McCarthy] who was never given resources. We­ then appoint someone who has never managed [Keane].­ When he went [after wasting millions], we appoint yet­ another novice. We should have appointed some one like­ Alladyce, who would have loved the job and almost­ certainly have kept us up - and would then have­ gradually cleared out the existing collection of­ failed Man U reserves, second-rate Irish players and­ average Championship clodhoppers. We should now appoint­ a proven experienced manager and give him time and­ space to do what is needed.
    What about Coppell or­ Curbishly?

    Bill. C.

    From William, on Tue 19 May 4:32PM

  7. Cameron, I know you are willing it to happen but I had­ a "funny" feeling we would get a result last­ night. Football can be a funny old game but it has been­ quite predictable over the last ten / fifteen­ years.
    Anyway good luck against the Villa... I'm­ beginning to lose the will to live... I've had too­ many decades of this up and down nonsense.

    From PATRICK, on Tue 19 May 1:13PM

  8. There's gonna be an almighty surprise on Sunday -­ can't you just feel it!
    Everybody's predicting­ the 3 at the bottom now will be the 3 at the bottom­ come full-time . . . . i'm not too sure myself!­
    Like the saying goes, 'football's a funny old­ game!!!'

    From cameron w, on Tue 19 May 12:59PM

  9. west ham were so right in letting anton ferdinand go he­ thought he was bigger than the club,who's laughing­ now

    From andyndebbie179, on Tue 19 May 11:03AM

  10. Michael b, unfortunately you're right, Newcastle at­ the height of their late 90s pomp managed to attract­ some big names but was gone once the whiff of mid to­ lower table mediocrity set in. It's a problem the­ region will always have which is a great­ shame.
    Personally, I think all clubs should be­ restricted to players born within a ten mile radius of­ their ground... that would sort the men from the boys!

    From PATRICK, on Tue 19 May 10:47AM

  11. Sbragia... throw a teacup... raise your voice... give­ them a jolly good talking to... do something for flips­ sake before I pull my head off.

    From PATRICK, on Tue 19 May 10:38AM

  12. Sorry if u build your defense with Anton Ferdinand in­ it. He's rubbish

    From Erskine Sam, on Tue 19 May 10:29AM

  13. The sad fact is Sunderland always struggle with the big­ boys , despite having some of the best supporters in­ the country ( Yeah I know every team says that but in­ their case it is true as evidecned by their crowd­ attendances ) Over the last 30 years they have yo-yoed­ up and down like katie Price's knickers - never up­ nor down for more than 2 minutes.
    It sems that the­ biggest challenge they face isn't so much the money­ - they had some last year and keane wasted most of it­ on useless players ( Gordon etc ) - main problem is­ convincing big time primadonna premier league­ footballers to play in a not very glamorous small north­ eastern city like Sunderland - not exactly a tourist­ attraction.

    From michael b, on Tue 19 May 10:24AM

  14. Half A Brain: you're probably right, but we keep­ on relying on other teams losing to keep us up, season­ after season, and that's not good enough.

    From Paperboy, on Tue 19 May 5:00AM

  15. datty, you'll be all right. You will be in the EPL­ next year. The other teams face a mountain and they all­ have to perform and win for you to fail IF you loose.

    From Half A Brain, on Tue 19 May 2:20AM

  16. sunderland fan for over 30 yrs.... tonight was­ @#$%.... no wonder im grey haired... life is tough been­ a maccum

    From datty, on Tue 19 May 1:16AM

  17. Play on Pompey,Pompey play on.

    From terry, on Tue 19 May 12:03AM
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