Pompey Nick Result

Sunderland manager Roy Keane has commented on his side`s recent defeat to Pompey in the Prem. Portsmouth won the when they were awarded a controversial penalty by referee Phil Dowd.

Keane told safc.com “That’s the Premier League – one mistake and you’re punished. Having said that, I’m disappointed in terms of us going forward. We never, ever looked like scoring. David James has probably had the easiest game of his career, I don’t think Portsmouth needed a goalkeeper today.”

“I’ve not seen the penalty but it doesn’t really matter what I think. The referee has given it and we have to accept it. I would have taken the point, but in this game you’ve got to do a bit more going forward. Even when we went a goal behind, we never looked like scoring.”

“I think one or two of our players came with their autograph books today, which I don’t like to see. I think they were maybe over-awed by Portsmouth, and by one or two of their players, and that’s unacceptable, I have to say. We’ve got to learn as a team that even on an off-day like today, particularly in terms of going forward, you have to grind out a point. And we’ve not been able to do that – the amount of games we’ve lost is unacceptable.”

“You’re going to have your off days. But you’ll find that the better teams will find the results. Lots of games this season we’ve thought the referees’ decisions have been harsh, but we can’t be the victims all the time. It can’t be what if’s all the time, because Sunderland have had that for far too many years and I’m trying to change that; I’m trying to change the mentality. We had the same at Blackburn – we conceded a penalty and ended up losing the game – and all these things add up.”

“We’ll learn the hard way because we’ve lost too many games now, far too many games. If you told me at the start of the season I’d lose this many games at this stage of the season, I’d probably be surprised. We should have picked up a few more draws, and I do believe we’ve deserved more, but not today.

“We had two or three thousand fans behind the goal and we have to give them something to shout about – today we’d have taken a point, ground it out, but you’ve got to bring something to the game and we didn’t today. Portsmouth have nicked a result and credit to them for that – that’s what good teams do.”

“Every game is a big game for me. We don’t treat any game differently. We go to Derby next week and, with our away record, we shouldn’t be getting our hopes up too much. But we’ve got to keep believing and we have to go there with the right attitude.”

Vital Sunderland Says

Keane making no excuses about our performance. We failed to test James at all and he is clearly disappointed by his players creativity. I just hope Richardson will be fit for next Saturday`s game against Derby.