Sunderland 0 - 0 Fulham

Steve Bruce fielded a very strong team and clearly went for all three points before the game started. It's a shame that all of the players did not go for victory today in a game that will be better off forgotten!

Anton Ferdinand moved into left back and had a very good game on that side of defence before moving back into the middle towards the end when Mensah was replaced by McCartney.

The Stadium of Light expected a victory today to move them away from the bottom three but even the biggest Mackem optimist should have known this game would end in disappointment. Nothing was created and the midfield was bypassed again by our dreadful long ball tactics from defence. Although Mensah and Turner done the basics and kept a clean sheet, some of the distribution from Turner in particular was just simply non existent to our forward players.

Fulham came here and frustrated the players and the crowd with some neat touches in midfield but lacked an overall goal threat throughout the game. Zamora who was passed fit bullied Mensah as much as he could without being sent off but he had no clear cut chances to take advantage of.

Steve Bruce commented after the game about how we are resorting to long ball tactics but this has been happening well before this game started Steve. Bruce said: 'We do that by taking the ball into areas where we should be taking it, and today we resorted to lumping it up the pitch.
If I ever resort to playing like that it`s time for me to call it because I want my team to get the ball down and play, and we found that difficult'.

As the crowd walked home in the freezing rain, they all must be asking the important question. Should Steve Bruce be given more time to turn things around or has our patience finally ran out?

The fans in the ground seem to be thinking the latter after another woeful display saw another two points go missing.

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