Gary Rowell: 'Against West Ham it looked as if all hope had been abandoned'
There were a lot of things to be disappointed about from Sunderland's game against West Ham United at the weekend but possibly the worst aspect of the defeat was the fact that up until they scored, we were comfortably the better team.
We had most possession and most shots but those facts makes me more angry, rather than less, because it tells me that in terms of matching them in general play, we were certainly good enough.
Once West Ham scored though just before half-time, we never looked like getting back into the game.
That was the worry for me.
Where was the resilience?
The confidence just drained totally out of us.
And that's the most worrying thing from the game, that our confidence is so fragile.
Had we been poor from the off, we might have accepted it, we might have accepted that it wasn't our day, that we didn't play well.
But it's worrying that we can play reasonably well but lose it mentally once we have our first set-back.
There was no drawing on mental reserves and looking to regain our rhythm.
When we conceded our first goal it looked like all hope had been abandoned.
West Ham's second goal obviously put the game beyond us, given the way we'd been playing.
But in all honesty, I don't know whether West Ham needed that second goal because I had my doubts whether Sunderland would have been able to equalise just the one goal.
As soon as the first goal went in, Sunderland deflated, you could almost visibly see it happen and that's a classic sign of a team that's struggling.
This is one of those results where the players involved just have to take it on the chin.
They'll come in for criticism and a lot of it might hurt but they just have to accept it and move on. Because there's little they can say to defend themselves.
That second-half performance from Sunderland was just unacceptable from a team hoping to give its fans confidence that this is a team which is going to battle and scrap its way from the drop zone.
It's tough for players to take criticism when they're feeling disappointed and down by the game they've just lost.
But they have to appreciate that fans have spent an awful lot of time and hard-earned money and they're going to be unhappy to see this bad run continuing. The players themselves, though, will know that they're capable of doing better.
And what they have to do more than anything is avoid a siege mentality.
Instead they have to use every game as an opportunity to roll their sleeves up and put things right.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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