Steve Bruce says he has moved on. If you believe Hull City’s manager, the mere mention of Sunderland no longer sends shafts of anger searing through him, spoiling the sunniest of days.
All things are relative, though. If the pain of being sacked on Wearside in November 2011 has diminished, there is little doubt Bruce would relish sampling another slice of revenge against a still disliked former employer on Tuesday.
In four games against Gus Poyet’s side his Hull players have emerged victorious each time but this match at the KC Stadium is arguably their most important meeting.
Poyet could have done without Adam Johnson’s arrest on suspicion of sexual activity with a girl aged under 16. As Sunderland’s squad departed for Humberside, Johnson remained in police custody and was suspended by the club.
Unaware of the developments unfolding 137 miles to the north, where Stadium of Light officials had gone into crisis mode, Bruce declared the fixture to be “a five-pointer”. Even if the mathematics are slightly suspect, his drift is clear.
While Sunderland are three points and two places clear of the bottom three, Hull stand one rung and one point higher up the Premier League ladder. “It’s a pivotal game,” he said. “Our better goal difference means it’s worth the equivalent of five points and would give us a good cushion above the bottom three.”
Poyet may take some encouragement from the fact Hull’s recent renaissance was halted by a 1-0 defeat at Stoke on Saturday, with Bruce’s players failing to manage a shot on target.
After four games without a victory Sunderland are hardly in better shape heading into this match, but they also have another potentially season-defining fixture at home to Aston Villa on Saturday week.
If Poyet fails to win at least one of those games he knows his already uncertain future will once again be subjected to scrutiny. “It’s up to us,” he said. “The next two games will mark what is going to happen at the end of the season, and it’s up to us to go and win both of them and put some space between us and the bottom three.
“I don’t know what to say about Hull but our record against them needs to change and for that to happen, we need to perform. It’s important the team is strong and powerful enough to have a good go.”
In the hope of doing so Poyet has scrapped his cherished patient passing philosophy and determination to create a Spanish style “brand Sunderland”. Purist principles have been ripped up and replaced by pragmatism. “We need to forget about identity and special shape or whatever, we just need to win the game somehow,” he said.
It represents quite a U-turn but Poyet is adamant the idea is to secure a quick fix before trying to re-establish an all important identity next season. “If you always play like we are going to play tomorrow, then you are always starting, you never have a way of winning football games,” he said. “You just play every game as it comes and throw a coin, one day for you and one day against. I want to have a way where we feel comfortable, but we didn’t find that way and I am really disappointed.”
Next came confirmation that Sunderland’s struggles after last season’s miraculous escape from relegation has come as a shock. “I wasn’t expecting to be in this position at this stage,” Poyet added.
“I was expecting us to be in a better place now in terms of the way we play. We didn’t achieve that and the problem now is that because we are not where I think we should be, we need to adapt. Right now it’s about getting wins and the next two would be important ones.”
The imperative to secure them explains why Poyet has jettisoned the measured approach he has preached since arriving on Wearside with “calmness” and “control” making way for “high-tempo” and “blitzing balls into the box”. If Johnson’s removal from the equation limits the crossing ability Sunderland’s manager has recently become desperate to instil in his team, Hull’s players are unlikely to detect much idealism in Lee Cattermole’s tackles.
“To play a certain kind of football I like you need to play with your heart but also be calm,”Poyet said. “There’s a tension but at the same time on the ball you need to relax. I don’t think there will be too much relaxing now. It’s a different kind of game now. We have to try our nuts off. We need to get something, somehow. It’s not about beautiful football any more, it’s just about making sure you beat your rival.
“I’m convinced we’ll be OK but I’m trying to make sure we do the right thing now. That’s a challenge and a big responsibility. It would be better not to be going through this again.”
