The Big Interview: Hurt Sunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole out with a vengeance

Man on a Mission: Lee Cattermole is hopeful Sunderland can put things right against Arsenal on Saturday

Sunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole speaks powerfully of putting things right, of atoning for Sunderland’s humiliating demolition at the hands of Southampton last week. He speaks of the hurt which seized the away dressing room at St Marys’ and of their burning desire to prevent such a capitulation in the near future.

“What happened last week, we’d like to think it was a one-off,” Cattermole says within the bowels of the Academy of Light, Sunderland’s UEFA five-star certified training facility. “A lot of people were hurting and there was a lot of discussion. We’ve got to make sure this brings us closer as a group and make sure it doesn’t happen again and bounce back.

“It’s been difficult,” he adds of the week. “We finished the game on Saturday and didn’t meet up until Monday. Those 24 hours felt like a few days to most of us and we were all hurting. We can back and had a think about it. We put our points across as to where we think we can improve and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We’ll look to bounce back and we know how long the season is after last year. It’s a new squad now and we’ve had these discussions now which should bring us closer as a group and look to demand more from each other and make sure things like that don’t happen to us again.”

Cattermole is determined to stay grounded, determined not to falsely raise hopes. “We’ve had a couple of good results and I’m not sure whether we got a little bit ahead of ourselves thinking we had cracked it but that is this this league and if you take your foot off the gas, it bites you.

“We have to keep pressing in each game and there are no excuses for Saturday but we have drawn a line under it now and we are looking to move on. I said to my girlfriend on Sunday morning ‘I wish we had a game this afternoon to put things right’. It’s just one of those where you just need a game.”

Sunderland next face Arsenal at the Stadium of Light on Saturday and Cattermole is hopeful of an antidote to last Saturday’s malaise on the South Coast. Sunderland have excelled at the Stadium of Light, with respectable draws against Manchester United and Totteham Hotspur and a solitary victory against Stoke City, and Cattermole is eager for Sunderland to enrich the Stadium of Light’s intimidation.

“We’ve made the Stadium of Light a fortress and we need to keep doing that and making it difficult for people to come here. We’ve gone down in games and the fans keep driving us on and pushing us forward. That’s what we need every week. We dropped too many points at home last year and picked up a lot of points away from home so we need to make it difficult for people to come here. I think we’ve done that of late and we need to make it difficult for Arsenal on Saturday.

“Arsenal played in the Cup in mid-week and we’ve got until Saturday to face them but we need everyone to pull together as a club. We know the supporters will back us. We let them down on Saturday and we need to bounce back this Saturday and start repairing that damage. That’s what it’s all about, coming out and showing what last week did to us.

“It hurt us as a group and we’ve got to star repairing that now and it starts on Saturday. We’ll go again. You can make excuses, international break, people coming back but we’ve had all week to prepare for this game. It’s been a good week so far. We’ll look towards Saturday and be raring to go come 3’o clock.”

One thing is for sure. Cattermole, with a vengeance, is ready.