SUNDERLAND 10 YEARS AGO: Roy Keane fury at defeat to leaders

ROY RIGHT TO GO MAD

Murphy agrees with furious boss (after 2-1 home defeat).

Daryl Murphy accepts that boss Roy Keane was right to “go mad” at sloppy Sunderland.

The Black Cats last night gifted two goals to Championship table-toppers Cardiff as Keane suffered his first home defeat since taking charge of Sunderland.

He was clearly seething about the performance afterwards and the players were left in no doubt about their manager’s disdain.

Irish striker Murphy said: “I can’t blame him – we threw the game away.

“You can’t give easy chances like that to any team, let alone the team at the top of the table.

“I thought at 1-1 we could have gone on and won it, but we gave away another sloppy goal.

“There is probably only so much the manager can take. If he is seeing the same mistakes all the time, he is going to go mad about it.”

Keane accused his side of being too friendly with each other – telling them to be more self-critical.

Murphy said: “We probably are a bit too nice. We should b*****k each other a bit more.

“If we can stop these mistakes, then I think we will climb this league because we play quite good football.

“We probably created more chances than Cardiff and it is that sloppiness that is costing us. Until we cut those out, we will keep conceding – and we seem to be making them most games.”

Despite their obvious disappointment and with the criticisms of their manager still ringing in their ears, Murphy said a promotion challenge can be mounted.

“The league table is still tight,” said the Irishman. “We’re still only six points from the play-offs and two or three wins on the bounce puts us right up there.

“But we are putting pressure on ourselves with mistakes.”

Sunderland now head to Norwich City on Saturday with the Canaries recovering from their 5-0 mauling at Stoke to take a point against Colchester last night.

POOR SHOW ANGERS KEANE

Roy Keane’s face was a mask of suppressed rage and wounded pride during his post-match press conference which was way, way below anything he regarded as an acceptable Sunderland display.

He sat uncomfortably, fending off the first halting three questions asked by the Press with answers one or two words in length and you sensed that more than anything he wanted to be out of there and getting to grips with the multitude of problems he’d seen before him.

He had given his players the sharp edge of his tongue in the minutes preceding, before going on to try looking for positives.

But positives were there none.

“We were poor,” he shrugged.

“The goals we gave away were poor, our passing was poor, our movement was poor, our movement was poor. Everything was poor really.

“What have I said to the players? Not much. I’ve said a few things, but I prefer those things are said to each other rather than publicly. There are not plusses whatsoever from the game.

“Not enough of my players won their one on ones with their opposite numbers and I still can’t explain those goals – I think I was the nearest man to their goalscorer!

“I expect I’ll have a sleepless night after that game and I hope my players have one too because I’m expecting a reaction from them.”