On This Day (2nd May 2011): Steve Bruce laments Sunderland's striking woes

02/05/2024 07:00

Despite eventually securing a top ten finish, Bruce was less than happy with the firepower at his disposal as the 2010/2011 season entered its final weeks

Steve Bruce's time in charge of Sunderland was often marred by long periods where injuries hit us hard.

At various times, the Sunderland manager could be dealing with up to a full starting eleven's worth of injured players and although this misfortune originally appeared to be coincidental, spells at Aston Villa and Newcastle, where the same misfortune would occur, made it appear like more than just bad luck.

During the 2010/2011 season, a spate of injuries led to Sunderland spending the final stages of the season without any fit strikers in the squad.

In the lead up to our fixture at home to Fulham, we were struggling to field a fit striker, with defender Nedum Onuoha eventually having to come on up front for the final twenty five minutes of the game, much to Bruce's dismay.

I'd actually seen him play there for the Manchester City youth team four or five years ago, so I thought it was worth a shot.

But it's pretty desperate when you're trying something like that.

Asamoah Gyan, Danny Welbeck and Frazier Campbell were all nursing long-term injuries, and reserve players Ryan Noble and Billy Knott were unable to face the Cottagers after picking up problems of their own during the week.

With so few options to choose from, it was no surprise that we lost the game 3-0. After the match, Bruce lamented his lack of options but insisted there was nothing the team could do but keep going.

Frazier's definitely out and I can't see Asamoah or Danny playing either. They both suffered hamstring injuries last weekend and what have we got left, three weeks? I can't see it.

What's happened has happened and we've got to bite the bullet and fight the flak that will come our way again this week.

We've got to get on with it and get a couple of results because you just never know. We might need another couple of points yet.

The lack of strikers reared its head in the game against Fulham, as our toothlessness made it a walk in the park for the Cottagers, who ran out easy winners.

January signing Stéphane Sessègnon was the man asked to step into the breach in the absence of an orthodox striker- a role to which he'd become accustomed during his time on Wearside.

To his credit, he managed a couple of goals in the games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham en route to Sunderland finishing tenth at the end of the season.

Despite the second half of the campaign being littered with injuries and the lingering fallout from the sale of Darren Bent, the tenth-placed finish was somewhat surprising given our wretched run of form after Christmas.

In many ways, this made the season look a lot better than it possibly was- although it was unlikely that you were going to hear Bruce say anything like that!