Bruce eyes top ten finish Last Updated: Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:27 Steve Bruce has set his Sunderland side the target of finishing higher than last term's tenth-placed spot in the 2011/12 season. The Black Cats opened their pre-season campaign with a narrow 2-1 victory at York City on Wednesday before setting off on a brief tour of Germany. Sunderland's next game is against Arminia Bielefeld but Bruce's eyes are only fixed on the opening Premier League match of the campaign against Liverpool in just over four weeks' time. He said of the pre-season plans: "We usually aim for five-and-a-half weeks with six or seven games. "You want each member of the squad to play at least four games and you use those pre-season fixtures to get the players ready. "The Premier League is a tough league and to finish where we wanted to finish last season was always going to be tough, so I'm delighted we achieved it. To finish tenth was terrific and we must improve on that if we can. "Last season is history, all the focus now is on pre-season. Getting players in the right condition, getting them fit to take on the division again."
TBH Syd I was at the match the other night and was never in doubt at the final result. The lads played well in warm up fashion & obviously watching Gardner, I thought he did enough to convince me we have a good lad on board. I'm not a Bruce lover but I do have new found optimism for the new season ahead and will give the man the benefit of the doubt. I'd love to mould Bruce's eye for a player, wheeler dealing with Reid's tactical nonce from 97-02 then I think we would have a manager to take us places..
Im hoping that Brucie wont be using Colbeck out wide in future like we did on Wednesday, i think we need some genuine pace out there. On a side note the view at Bootham was top notch, i was stood behind a floodlight for 45 minutes....Thought it was Turner.
