Soccer: Sunderland boss Roy Keane takes full responsibility for his side's slump into the relegation zone after admitting he cannot be certain he will wake up convinced he is still the best man for the job.
Keane issued a brutally honest assessment of his side's dismal 4-1 defeat by Bolton at the Stadium of Light yesterday and had no answers for his side's sorry plight.
Keane said: "I ask myself every single day if I am the right man for Sunderland. I asked myself this morning and I said that I was. Tomorrow morning if the answer's no we will have to look at it.
"I have to be honest in my assessment. It's not about what's best for Roy Keane. It's Sunderland Football Club. I might wake up on Monday morning and think I'm the right man. On Tuesday it might be different.
"I'm the manager of this football club and ultimately I'm responsible and I've never shied away from that.
"That's part of being a manager and that's why I take full responsibility for today and the run we're on and everything else."
The Cork man insists he is not yet interested in discussing a new contract and has "no excuses" for his side's sorry slide into the Premier League relegation zone.
He stressed he could neither offer nor receive any assurances about his future while painting a bleak picture of the remainder of the season. His own contract expires at the end of the season.
"I don't think it's a case of discussing a new contract or what (chairman) Niall (Quinn) or the owners feel. Whatever they're feeling, we're feeling the same," he said.
"It's a disappointment. We always said the table would take shape after eight, nine or 10 games and we are where we are and we all know that it's not good enough."
Keane admitted he was not angry over the series of individual errors which contributed to his side's heavy defeat with Matt Taylor, Gary Cahill and Johan Elmander, twice, replying out Djibril Cisse's early strike.
He added: "I look at what these lads have done over the last two and a bit years and they've been absolutely brilliant. I can't legislate for individual mistakes so stuff like that doesn't make me angry.
"We play with such innocence we make it hard for ourselves and we seem to get punished for every mistake we make.
"It's such a harsh world. When you get in front you've certainly got to make sure you don't lose the game."
Bolton boss Gary Megson insisted he had always had confidence in his side moving into the top half of the table after their third consecutive win lifted them up to seventh.
Megson said: "There's no secret and the only thing we're doing differently that we weren't doing beforehand is scoring goals.
"Our performances are not much different except in terms of confident. When we score goals all the other aspects of our game come to the fore and people start to realise what we've got."
And Megson once again hailed Elmander for a performance which ought to have yielded a hat-trick and which continued to wipe out the memory of his long barren spell in front of goal.
Megson added: "I thought Johan's best chance was the early one when he beat Craig Gordon and put it over the top and I was delighted by his response because he didn't hide or feel sorry for himself.
"He scored two fantastic goals and had one kicked off the line so I'm really pleased with him. People have focused on the fact that he hasn't scored enough goals but his performances have always been really good."
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