CHRIS: WE’LL BOUNCE BACK
Maguire says Cats’ character will come to the fore
Chris Maguire says Sunderland’s squad has the character to bounce back from their first league defeat of the season - but is under no illusions that they must start games better.
Saturday was the sixth time the Black Cats have conceded the first goal in their eight league games, but Kyle McFadzean’s header meant this was the first time they had given up a two goal advantage.
“We’ve not felt that feeling all season and it’s not a good feeling to have after a game,” Maguire said.
“We don’t want it to creep in too much but there’s going to be games like that over the course of a season.
“The thing that’s disappointing is the manner in which we got beaten. The first half we know wasn’t good enough.
“Yeah we’re a massive club but just because of that it doesn’t give us the right to turn out at clubs and expect to win, we know that.
“We know it’s going to be difficult.
“Burton was a different type of game to Wimbledon, they’re a more physical team, I just think it was the way we lost the goals and the manner in which we started the match which was more disappointing for us.
“It’s a learning curve and we’ve got to realise we can’t keep gifting teams a goal start,” Maguire added.
“We’ve been lucky to come back from the one but Saturday was the first we’ve gone two behind.
“I think when we got one back a lot of people were thinking we were going to nick a draw. It wasn’t to be.
“We’ve got to work on that on the training pitch, we’ve spoken about it before. We can’t keep gifting teams the goal start.
“We’ve spoken about that and we’ll keep that in house and work on it on the training pitch. As a squad we’ll come together and try to work on it to try and solve the problem.
“We have to cut that out and hopefully it’s us that take the lead next time.”
The 29-year-old has been impressed with the character of the squad so far this season and that gives him confidence that they will bounce back, starting against Rochdale next weekend.
“I think you can see we don’t down tools too easily,” he said.
“I’ve been on the other side of it where you feel sorry for yourselves and your heads drop, and all over the pitch you can see that.
“I think it can give us a good kick up the backside here. We’re in a game.
“We keep giving goals away and it’s something we want to stop but I think everybody can see the reaction when we do go behind and we do kick on.
“Unfortunately Saturday wasn’t a day when we could come back but we do know what we have to do.
“Eight games in, one defeat for a relatively new team is quite good. The way we’ve played some games, the football’s been quite good and I think the fans would back that up.
“But we’re not the finished article, we know that. It’s a long season and hopefully we can get better as we go on.”
Maguire’sstunningsecond half strike gave Sunderland somehopeofrescuingapoint. The Scot had been dropped after a disappointing per-
formance against Fleetwood Town but he hopes to force his way back in and get back on the scoresheet in the coming weeks.
“I think it’s the first I’ve scored for a while outide the box,” he said.
“It used to be a thing of mine doing that a lot, especially with the left foot. It was a nice strike it was just unfortunate it didn’t really mean anything for the team.
“On a personal note, you want to play every game and unfortunately I didn’t start on Saturday but I felt I came on and tried to show that’s why I want to be in the team.”