Grayson vows to fight on after latest defeat
sunderland 1 Grabban (45) bristol city 2 Reid (28), Djuric (73)
Simon Grayson has vowed to carry on as Sunderland manager after Bristol City became the latest team to leave the Stadium of Light with three points this season.
The Robins managed to climb into the play-off places courtesy of a win on Wearside after substitute Milan Djuric headed in the winner with 17 minutes remaining.
Lewis Grabban had given Sunderland hope in first-half stoppage-time after cancelling out the opening goal from Bobby Reid in the 28th minute.
But Sunderland, now without a win at the Stadium of Light in 18 matches, remain second from bottom ahead of Tuesday’s tussle with the only team below them, Bolton.
Grayson, clearly unhappy after his side’s seventh home game without a win this season, said: “I am disappointed with the players and what they have done today.
“I will continue to work as hard as I can and, hopefully, we will get results and it will change very quickly. After 12 years and 600-odd games in management, I know what can happen if you win games.
“I am under no illusion we need to start winning very quickly. We need to get some positivity before the next two games. I will be here to fight on, without a shadow of doubt. I have to lift them but we have to do basics right.
“I am saying the same things after every defeat. We are still making bad decisions, not taking responsibility and gifting our opponents’ opportunities to win games.
“Yesterday (Friday) we had a team meeting, designed to give players jobs and responsibility. We repeated it again at lunchtime today and we have not been able to stop a player at 5ft 7in getting a free header. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot.
“We did get a break and a real boost with the goal, and I said at half-time we wanted to go on and impose ourselves, but we kept on making really bad decisions. They have to stand up and be counted. Even in the last 15 minutes, we huffed and puffed without being effective and lost our shape. We have to carry out our game plan.”
While the frustrations mount at Sunderland, Bristol City are climbing into promotion contention. It looked like City, who had taken the lead in the 28th minute through Bobby Reid, might not regain their place in the top six when Lewis Grabban forced in a scrappy equaliser for Sunderland at the end of the first half.
Rather than build on that after the restart, the quality of the play deteriorated for a long period from both teams. Bristol City looked more for the counter-attacks, while Sunderland struggled to create something.
And after a pretty uneventful second half, Lee Johnson’s side, who have lost only once since August, managed to seal the points courtesy of Djuric’s first league goal of the season with 17 minutes remaining.
Callum O’Dowda looked like he might win it for Bristol City when he charged through on goal, after a weak Billy Jones header, only to waste his effort by firing over. But then O’Dowda soon made up for it. After getting to the line he sent in a fine cross for the towering Djuric to nod into the empty net.
After that, Sunderland didn’t cause Bristol anywhere near as many problems as they needed to and the visitors stayed solid to move up to fourth.
Johnson is pleased with the progress and the way they battled against the awful Wearside wind.
He said: “I’m delighted with the second half. Sunderland were the better team in the first half. Their goal was a good wake up call. It was about grit and determination and the inches. Callum O’Dowda was brilliant. He works hard, set up two and he will be delighted.
“It was probably one of the most aggressive half-time talks I have had to give. We had to rile them up and go old school. It was almost like whacko, Mike Bassett, when he hit the wall!
“Two or three needed to awaken the chimp and be more aggressive in their play and they did. I’m delighted.
“The conditions were so blustery it was not about football it was grit and determination and winning the inches. We made positive tactical changes and it paid off. We’d been too soft.”