Bent blow for Black Cats

Posted Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by PA

Sunderland will be without leading scorer Darren Bent for the Carling Cup clash against Aston Villa at the Stadium of Light.

Bent jolted a knee in the weekend defeat at Birmingham and will not be risked. Central defender John Mensah is out with a calf injury while full-back Phil Bardsley is unlikely to overcome a shoulder problem.

Lee Cattermole (knee ligaments) remains the club's only long-term injury victim.

Boss Steve Bruce believes inconsistency is inevitable as he attempts to instil a winning mentality into his remodelled squad.

The Wearsiders would have gone fourth in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday had they not slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Birmingham with a lethargic performance which failed to reach the heights shown in the games against Manchester United and Liverpool.

Although questions have been asked about the size of his squad following some notable summer departures, Bruce feels losses such as the one at St Andrew's can be attributed to the squad not yet being tuned into his way of thinking.

Speaking ahead of the Carling Cup clash against Aston Villa, he said: "I have chosen to go that way with the size of the squad and you just hope you don't get any serious injuries.

"Obviously Lee Cattermole's is a serious injury but I am not going to use that as an excuse. I believe it's a mental thing.

"But we can't forget this club only just survived by the skin of its teeth last season so we can't expect it all to turn around in a few months.

"This club has only been in the Premier League for a little over two years and there are going to be ups and downs.

"You can't play well week in, week out but we look a little bit fragile away from home and we need to do something about it."

Emile Heskey could make a rare start for Villa.

The England striker has struggled to displace Gabriel Agbonlahor and John Carew for much of the season, but Villa boss Martin O'Neill is likely to make changes.

Second-choice goalkeeper Brad Guzan is also likely to play after featuring in the majority of cup games since joining Villa 18 month ago. Luke Young, Fabian Delph, Nigel Reo-Coker, Nicky Shorey, Habib Beye and Craig Gardner come into contention, with O'Neill mindful of Villa having to play five games in 15 days.

Meanwhile, O'Neill insists his side have to fire on all cylinders in every game to achieve success.

O'Neill is pleased with Villa's overall start to the campaign after the shock of losing at home to Wigan on the opening day.

But the former Celtic boss believes Villa are "not that good" to be able to win matches when not at their best.

This has been highlighted with Villa collecting seven points from the meetings with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City but only one from games with Wigan, Blackburn and Wolves.

He said: "I don't think we should get too carried away by it all. We only have to look back to the opening day of the season against Wigan when disaster abounded.

"We fought back and overall we have continued reasonably well since that. It has been a fine start and the games versus Manchester City and Chelsea gave us confidence.

"After the defeat against Wigan, I had to deflect a lot of questions and there was a rush to judge.

"As a consequence, I don't think there is any point in us getting carried away with a reasonable start to the season."