Sunderland boss Roy Keane has admitted he may have to alter his training regime after witnessing a first-half horror show against Fulham in the 1-1 draw on Saturday.
The Black Cats turned in a spectacularly inept first 45 minutes to belie the manager's assertion that they can make a significant impact in the top flight.
What transpired before the break made a second-half fightback look perhaps a little more impressive than it was, and while Keane was happy to see his players secure a reward for their efforts, he is well aware that, to a certain extent, that simply papered over the cracks.
In the wake of a frenetic finish, during which Kenwyne Jones' 86th-minute equaliser set the scene for substitute Anthony Stokes to almost snatch victory in injury-time, the Irishman revealed he had already started to analyse the reasons for a woeful start.
Keane, who has been hampered by injuries from the off this season, said: "We are asking players to keep pushing their bodies. That is well and good at Christmas or Easter, but so early in the season, it is something I don't like doing. As a manager, I have got to ask myself why we were so flat in the first half. Possibly we are training too hard, possibly we are pushing the players, and sometimes you can leave it out on the training pitch. Credit to our players, they train extremely hard. There is always that intensity, there are always tackles flying about. But then I ask myself why have we got a load of injuries? That is down to me as a manager and we have to look at that because in any game in the Premier League, if you start slow, it's not like a light switch, you cannot just switch it on. You have got to start quickly, and it was a long 45 minutes for us. But I am grateful that we got to half-time."
That the Wearsiders walked off with boos ringing in their ears only 1-0 down was something Fulham boss Lawrie Sanchez was to live to regret after his side dominated the opening 45 minutes.
Simon Davies' 32nd-minute free-kick did the damage, but the visitors should perhaps already have been in front after the normally lethal David Healy latched on to Danny Higginbotham's suicidal pass across goal, but contrived to fire wide of the empty net from 20 yards.
Sunderland's improvement after the restart was marked, although it was not until the 70th minute that they really threatened with keeper Antti Niemi blocking Grant Leadbitter's shot after the midfielder broke through the cover.
The Finn repeated the feat at the death when confronted one-one-one by Stokes, but by then Jones had climbed highest to power home his fourth goal of the season from a Leadbitter cross to level.
Asked what he had said at half-time, Keane replied with a smile: "Not too much. Half-time came at a good time - I'm not sure for the players, but for me and the staff. It was a chance to make a few points to them, and credit to them, they took it on board. It was certainly a game of two halves. They were unrecognisable from the first half."
The result was all the more creditable after full-back Greg Halford's second dismissal of the season on 67 minutes for two bookable offences, a misdemeanour which will land him a two-match ban.
But if Halford was disappointed with his afternoon's work, his mood was more than matched by that of Sanchez, who has now seen his side go nine Barclays Premier League games without a win.
He said: "I see some results going on in the Premier League, I see sixes and sevens and fours and fives and threes. We had one bad half against Portsmouth and were beaten 2-0, and that's our worst game of the season. We have been in every other game against top teams from Arsenal all the way down to the Derbys of this world when we played with 10 men. We can compete, but what we cannot seem to do at this moment in time is gather three points from one game. We have to gather them from three games, which does make it rather difficult. But if we play like that in 90 per cent of our games, barring the last five minutes, we will be okay."
26 10 2007
Fulham boss Lawrie Sanchez insists he has not made a renewed attempt to land West Ham United striker Bobby Zamora.
The former Northern Ireland manager tried unsuccessfully to sign the 26-year-old in the summer but was recently rumoured to be lining up a £4million bid for the player.
However, Sanchez said: "There's money still available. Bobby was a player we asked about during the close season and were told no. I've seen that we've been linked with several players all of a sudden. I don't know where that's come from because there's nothing we can do right now. We wouldn't make our interest known earlier because you look foolish if you don't get the player. It alerts other people, too."
Zamora made his name at Brighton, scoring 77 times in 137 appearances for the Seagulls, but his career stalled after a disappointingly brief spell with Spurs.
Since moving to Upton Park in early 2004, Zamora has found the net 39 times in 142 games for the Hammers.
01 10 2007
Fulham manager Lawrie Sanchez has defended striker Clint Dempsey against claims he deliberately used his elbow to inflict the facial injury that will almost certainly keep Chelsea skipper John Terry out of this week's Champions League clash against Valencia.
Terry underwent an operation on a depressed fracture of a cheekbone sustained in a first half aerial collision with Dempsey during Saturday's 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge.
The centre half could also miss Sunday's league game at Bolton and England's two Euro 2008 qualifiers later this month.
Avram Grant, Chelsea's new manager, said some of his players insisted afterwards that Dempsey had used an arm against Terry.
But the American, suspended for two games while playing for New England Revolution in the MLS last year when his flailing elbow broke the jaw of Kansas City's Jimmy Conrad, was not penalised by referee Martin Atkinson and Sanchez maintained: "I'm sure it wasn't malicious. Clint isn't that type of character. Clint is a strong player and so is John Terry. These things happen in football when two big men come together."
Terry carried on until half time, but his absence in the second half and the needless dismissal of Didier Drogba left Chelsea fighting on the back foot.
The Blues have now not scored in four league games and lie eighth in the table, but Sanchez said: "Chelsea aren't a vulnerable team. If you've got top class players and you play at the level they're at you shouldn't be vulnerable and I'm sure they're not going to be. We've got Chelsea at our place on New Year's Day and I'm sure they will bring a different team and it will be a different type of game."
26 09 2007
Danny Murphy and Seol Ki-Hyeon are pushing for starts against Bolton in the Carling Cup on Wednesday.
The pair made a positive impact when coming on against Manchester City on Saturday, with Murphy finding the net, and could make manager Lawrie Sanchez's starting line-up.
Sanchez is expecting a physical approach from Bolton after a recent upturn in results and a return to the more direct style of former manager Sam Allardyce.
He said: "I understand Bolton have reverted to what they were under Big Sam last season and have gone more direct again. Sammy had wanted to play more pass-and-move than Sam did but that seems to have changed now after a good result in Europe and a good draw with Tottenham at the weekend."
