Ruiter making Light of his side’s home hoodoo
ROBBIN Ruiter insists he has no hang-up about playing at the Stadium of Light – and nor should his Sunderland team-mates.
The Black Cats have an appalling home record, Tuesday night’s defeat against Nottingham Forest making it 15 games in all competitions since they last won in front of their own fans – that last home victory coming before Christmas 2016.
Sunderland are back in action at Hull City tomorrow, but Ruiter rejects the notion the team are happier on their travels such is the fraught atmosphere on Wearside.
Asked whether it was a relief to be playing away from home next, the summer signing said: “No, I can only speak for myself but for me it is not a relief because it is a great stadium with great fans.
“It is normal they are disappointed as well because we have not won for a long time at home, but they also saw we fought, we played all right, quite solidly and they applauded us after the game, no whistles.
“They saw we played OK, and if we keep playing like this we will be higher in the table.
“It is a positive there is no time to be disappointed.
“We have to keep our head up and make sure we are ready for Saturday because already the next game is waiting for us and hopefully we can win that.”
Despite the result, Sunderland’s performance against Forest was a marked improvement on their showing at home three days earlier against Sheffield United when they were booed off after a 2-1 defeat.
Dutch shot-stopper Ruiter added: “The fans saw we tried everything [against Forest]. There was way more passion than on Saturday.
“We gave our best and were unlucky and the fans saw it was better than the last couple of games and we deserved to win. Unfortunately we didn’t.”
Sunderland conceded four minutes from time against Forest, which condemned them to defeat in a game they had never looked in danger of losing, Ruiter admitting: “It was a punch in the stomach but we have to keep our heads up.
“If you played this game 100 times, we would at least earn a draw 99 times but instead we ended up with zero points – it is unbelievable.
“We played all right, we were solid, we did not give too many chances away and we had chances.
“We are disappointed but it has to give us confidence because we saw we were able to do it.
“So we are able to do it on Saturday and the game after that and if we win that first game we will go on and win a lot.
“Maybe it is self-confidence, we just need a victory and when we start winning games confidence will come back.
“We can play pretty good football but we have to play it for 90 minutes.
“If we can do that and reach our normal level, which is higher than the last two games, we will start winning games.”
Forest’s goal came as a result of a mistake by Ty Browning but Ruiter says the rest of the players have put an arm around the shoulder of the on-loan Everton defender.
He said: “It is tough but we all support him. He is a young player, a really talented player and he played a hell of a game in a positive way, very solid as everyone in defence was, especially Ty, but unfortunately he made one mistake.
“He is very disappointed but we all know he is a great player.
“He can be disappointed for a day but we need him back on Saturday.”