Sunderland Reaction: Bruce won't rule out Europe

Both Ben Watson and Charles N'Zogbia scored their first goals for the club either side of Grant Leadbitter's equaliser for Sunderland.

Unsuprisingly, Bruce was pleased with the victory. The three points leave the club just two short of the magic 40 points. However survival was at the back of the mind for Bruce, who is targeting a European spot.

Here is the reaction of the two managers.

Steve Bruce

We're delighted because any club in the league can't afford to go eight games without a win, and even though we've played some big teams and been unfortunate, the bottom line is that you need to win.

I think both sets of players found it difficult in the conditions. The wind was blowing around the place and there were a few bobbles on the pitch, but the more and more the game went on the more and more I thought we became comfortable.

N'Zogbia scored a great goal and really showed his ability. I remember coming here to see him play a few years ago for Newcastle and never thought I would have the chance of signing him, but that's how football works out sometimes.

To run nearly the length of the pitch and score a goal like that in this league is fantastic and shows great ability.

The one thing we had been missing was a bit of cutting edge after the loses in January. But today we changed some things round and it seemed to suit us.

Had we have been able to keep the squad together I would have been very confident we could have finished in the top-ten, which, for a club like ours, is an excellent achievement.

There were too many chances in January that damaged us, but we're delighted with the business we've done and the players we've brought in.

We've got a huge game against Hull next week and if we can win that one then we've got an outside chance of finishing in a European spot.

The likes of Bolton and Blackburn have got into Europe over he past few years when no-one fancied them so why not?

Ricky Sbragia

It's probably the worst we've played as a team since I've been in charge. We were OK until we got the equaliser and then, typical us, we gave a soft goal away.

We didn't have the ability to break them down. We made bad decisions and we didn't increase the tempo, overall we were poor.

We sensed in the warm-up that they were a bit flat and it was a concern, but we started OK and then Wigan scored from one of their first attacks.

Grant [Leadbiiter] produced a good performance and he deserved his goal. With 15 minutes to go, we took a risk, we went three at the back and went for it, but, unfortunately, we didn't get a goal.

The crowd are entitled to boo; they pay good money and we haven't performed. I've no problems with it, we have got to deliver for them and get a result. We were poor today and got what we deserved.

I always thought we were still in there [the relegation battle]. We need a couple of wins - and quickly. Even when we had that seven-point gap from the relegation positions, I always felt we were still in it.

The Table

Latest match Sunday, 15th March 2009		Pld		Home						Away						Overall						Pts	GD
				W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A
1	Manchester United	28		12	1	1	31	9		8	4	2	18	7		20	5	3	49	16		65	+33
2	Chelsea	29		8	5	2	24	8		10	2	2	25	8		18	7	4	49	16		61	+33
3	Liverpool	29		8	6	0	22	8		9	4	2	27	13		17	10	2	49	21		61	+28
4	Arsenal	29		8	5	2	22	11		6	5	3	23	15		14	10	5	45	26		52	+19
5	Aston Villa	28		5	7	2	20	15		10	0	4	22	14		15	7	6	42	29		52	+13
6	Everton	29		6	5	4	23	17		7	4	3	16	12		13	9	7	39	29		48	+10
7	West Ham United	28		7	1	6	19	17		4	5	5	15	17		11	6	11	34	34		39	0
8	Wigan Athletic	29		6	4	4	13	12		4	4	7	16	16		10	8	11	29	28		38	+1
9	Fulham	29		8	3	3	22	12		1	7	7	6	14		9	10	10	28	26		37	+2
10	Manchester City	29		9	0	5	30	12		1	5	9	15	25		10	5	14	45	37		35	+8
11	Bolton Wanderers	29		6	2	7	15	18		4	1	9	16	25		10	3	16	31	43		33	-12
12	Hull City	29		3	4	8	16	30		5	5	4	19	21		8	9	12	35	51		33	-16
13	Tottenham Hotspur	28		5	5	4	15	9		3	3	8	18	24		8	8	12	33	33		32	0
14	Sunderland	29		5	3	7	17	18		3	5	6	12	20		8	8	13	29	38		32	-9
15	Blackburn Rovers	29		3	5	6	15	21		4	4	7	17	27		7	9	13	32	48		30	-16
16	Newcastle United	29		4	6	4	20	22		2	5	8	15	24		6	11	12	35	46		29	-11
17	Portsmouth	28		5	2	7	18	22		2	6	6	12	23		7	8	13	30	45		29	-15
18	Stoke City	29		7	4	3	17	13		0	4	11	11	34		7	8	14	28	47		29	-19
19	Middlesbrough	29		4	7	4	13	16		2	2	10	8	25		6	9	14	21	41		27	-20
20	West Bromwich Albion	28		5	2	7	19	27		1	2	11	6	27		6	4	18	25	54		22	-29