Our man: It Ad to be him...
The one that got away came back to bite Steve Bruce yesterday as January transfer window target Adam Johnson scored an extra-time equaliser for Manchester City.
The late goal pained Bruce, who has almost grown accustomed to the agony of seeing good results snatched from him at the death in recent months.
But he also saw lots of positives too from a game which saw Sunderland take another small step away from the drop zone.
"It's ironic that it would be Johnson – a Sunderland fan – who should equalise," Bruce grimaced. "I chased him for months, but, in the end, he chose Manchester City and as soon as he scored I could imagine the headlines.
"We would have loved to have had him.
"He's something different because he's a dribbler and you don't see that sort of player too often in the English game these days.
"He's a natural footballer and a very, very good player with fantastic balance – as soon as he gets the ball he wants to get at the full-back."
Bruce was more in the mood though to praise his own players rather than those of the opposition after a stirring display produced one of the best atmospheres at the Stadium of Light this season.
"We were excellent in the first half – the best we've played for weeks," he mused.
"And perhaps the greatest compliment was City making a tactical change after 30 minutes, which just showed how well we'd played.
"They brought on Roque Santa Cruz and he helped change things around for them. Tactically, it made them better and they defended things well, too, but we still controlled the game right up until half-time when we lost Kenwyne Jones and were not quite the same team after that."
Bruce was pleased, though, with the slickness of his side's showing in the first 45 minutes and their resolution in the second. "Overall, it's a performance we can be proud of," he said.
"The big disappointment is that while the scoreline was probably a fair result, on the balance of play in the second half, we came within a couple of minutes of making it back-to-back top-flight wins for the first time in about 50 matches.
"There have been a lot of positives about us in recent weeks and we just have to keep it going. We've got another home game next, another tough one against a Birmingham City side that has been doing really well.
"But I think that if we produce the sort of display we have done in our last two home games, the fans will be more than happy."
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Print this page- Sunderland’s astonishing rise even surprising Martin O’Neill
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
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