Steve Bruce wants to avenge the worst day of his managerial career when Sunderland face Newcastle for the first time since their 5-1 thrashing.
That October day at St James’ Park in the English Premier League – when his in-form side were utterly blown away by the Tynesiders – will be etched in Bruce’s memory forever, but this Sunday he hopes will begin the road to redemption.
“I’ve been counting the days for this game to come around,” he admitted. “We were awful at their place.”
“Too many of our players didn’t turn up. We’re a young side and the occasion got to them but we’ll be better this weekend I promise you that – we couldn’t be any worse.”
“I’ll never forget it. Nothing can be anything worse than that. We’ll try to eradicate it, but unless we win 5-1, it’ll still be there because I lost a derby 5-1.”
Bruce will welcome back Nedum Onuoha for the game, with the on-loan Manchester City right-back having recovered from the hamstring injury which ruled him out of the last three games.
He will go straight back in the side, but the game looks to have come too soon for Danny Welbeck (hamstring) and Lee Cattermole (back).
“In an ideal world we’d both be meeting each other with our strongest squads,” Bruce said.
“It would have been great for us to have had a full-strength central midfield of David Meyler and Lee Cattermole had they been fully fit.”
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