Sunderland thrashing by Newcastle 'the worst defeat of my career', says Steve Bruce

Steve Bruce, the Sunderland manager, apologised to the club’s supporters after the “disastrous” derby defeat. He said it was the lowest point of his football career.

Sunderland thrashing by Newcastle 'the worst defeat of my career', says Steve Bruce
Head in hands: Steve Bruce can't watch the carnage in front of him Credit: Photo: GETTY IMAGES

“Probably with the occasion, it is my worst defeat as a manager. Probably in my career, I would have thought," Bruce said.

"It’s still trying to sink in what we have just witnessed. But you know when you go into management that there are times when it is going to be difficult. I don’t think anyone could see it coming.

“Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Penalties, red cards, poor defending. Rolled into one, it’s been a disastrous afternoon.”

Bruce, who was born and bred in Newcastle and supported the club as a boy, accepted the blame for his sorry team’s shortcomings in his first Tyne-Wear derby.

“To come here and play like that, it’s not acceptable,” Bruce added. “All I can do is apologise. When you get beaten as badly as that, here of all places, it will take a lot of recovering from. It is difficult for our supporters to take a beating, let alone a performance and a hammering like that. We can apologise and try to put it right.

“I will take full responsibility. I have been saying all week that we must handle the occasion. But from the off, we didn’t and we got blown away by a far superior team.

“We were playing a big derby game and we had three or four players [playing well]. To win it, you need seven or eight or nine. That’s what Newcastle had and we didn’t have enough and we got our backsides kicked. It is tough to take.’’

Bruce was confident his team would bounce back. “It will be the most difficult 48 hours but we have to recover as a group and come out fighting again,” he said. “We have to take it on the chin. We have to take our medicine.

“I am a resilient so and so but it will take a while to get over it. I have been beaten before but the one thing I need time to do is to repair the damage and I will try to do that.”

Michael Turner, the Sunderland defender, felt the atmosphere possibly affected the team.

“It was humiliating,” he said. “To give away soft goals like that killed us off in the end. The occasion maybe got to a few of us. We never got the game by the scruff of the neck and gave goals away cheaply. Once we went a man down, the game was over.”

DERBY-DAY NIGHTMARES...

Sunderland’s thrashing was their heaviest defeat at St James’ Park since 1956, but it was not the first time a derby had ended in humiliation.

Man City 5 Man Utd 1
The result that made Alex Ferguson (a plain 'Mr’, then) bury his head in the bed-clothes. Newly promoted City, with just one win in their first six games of the 1989-90 season, ran riot, with David Oldfield (2), Trevor Morley, Ian Bishop and Andy Hinchcliffe scoring.

Tottenham 0 Arsenal 5
The 1978 result that still sends shivers through north-east London. Inspired by the genius of Liam Brady and the clinical finishing of Alan Sunderland, Arsenal ripped their rivals to shreds to record their biggest post-War win at White Hart Lane.

Celtic 6 Rangers 2
The optimism of the 5,000 Rangers fans who travelled to Glasgow’s east end in August 2000 lasted less than a minute before Chris Sutton opened the scoring. Celtic were three up after 11 minutes and ended with their biggest Old Firm tally since 1957.