Keane takes blame for Sunderland defeat
Roy Keane laid the blame for Sunderland's FA Cup third round defeat squarely at his own door.
Though his players let him down in Saturday's 3-0 loss to Wigan, Keane will have spent the weekend deep in thought over what he can do to turn around a depressing sequence of results this season.
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The Irishman said: "The players will be disappointed with how they played but the sole responsibility falls on my shoulders – 100 per cent.
"I've brought a lot of these players to the club and I pick the team.
"I've got great belief in them and we'll focus on the Premiership now, as we have to, but there's been too many defeats.
"We've played Wigan twice now and, over the two games, they've beaten us 6-0.
"Now, I don't think there's that much difference between the two sets of players, but we are losing too many of these games, so clearly I'm not doing my job.
"I'm determined to get it right, but eventually time runs out on everyone, the penny has to drop."
Of the cup tie itself, Keane reflected: "The three goals we conceded were not good enough.
"I felt before the game that we'd be OK, but that was nowhere near being the case.
"The first goal is always important and the way they scored, it was a bad goal to concede from our point of view.
"I've no excuses about the game, we just weren't good enough on the day.
"I truly believed we would get a result against Wigan. I know there's no guarantees in life and no guarantees in football, but I didn't see this coming.
"It's a major disappointment, so you have to step back and look at everything.
"It's not as though I picked a weak team. I thought the team was good enough to win that match – a lot of the lads we played were regulars in the side anyway.
"We felt the game was there for us, but we didn't make it happen, we never looked like scoring and we've given three soft goals away.
"We've given players a chance, we're chopping and changing, we're trying lots of different things.
"Some players took their chances, others didn't, but we persevere.
"You get back out on the training pitch, try different things you and keep your belief.
"We have to focus on our league form now, that's our bread and butter and we have a tough game against Portsmouth (Sunday).
"There's no escaping the fact that there's been loads of disappointments this season and this is another one.
"We need to bounce back because the results at the moment aren't good enough.
"We can talk all day and make excuses and play the self-pity card but that doesn't get you anywhere – we have to improve."
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
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Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
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