Kilgallon: It´s been hard at Sunderland

Sunderland defender Matthew Kilgallon admits he has found life difficult since moving to the Stadium of Light two years ago.

The former Sheffield United man made his first English Premier League appearance of the season as a substitute against Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday.

Kilgallon said he was satisfied after helping his side to their fourth clean sheet of the season.

“It’s been hard for me at Sunderland really,” he told the Shields Gazette.

“But I just try to do my best when given my chance, that’s all I can do. I just have to take it game by game.

“I thought I did all right on Tuesday night considering I hadn’t played all season.

“I felt fit and sharp, and that’s down to the training the staff put on for us. They make it hard.

“But although keeping sharp’s all right, there’s nothing like a proper Premier League game. It’s match fitness more than anything that you need.”

The stalemate against QPR was Sunderland’s second match without a win at the Stadium of Light in four days, and their failure to score means they have now only hit the back of the net 12 times in 13 league games.

However, Kilgallon insists the poor return is not just down to the attacking players, and has encouraged the whole team to chip in with goals.

“At least we got a clean sheet, which is always your job as the back four,” the 28-year-old defender said.

“But everyone’s got to help create chances, it’s not just the wide men or the strikers.

“When we go up for corners, we’ve got to get our heads on things as well. It’s a team thing.

“It was always going to be a difficult game against QPR. They had the new manager in so they were going to be up for it and they’ve got some good players there as well.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t win, but points are vital and at least we’ve got one.

“In the second half against West Brom we showed some real fight and we could have nicked something in the end.

“The goals we conceded were a bit freaky – Simon (Mignolet) made a mistake which he never does and then there was the penalty that wasn’t.

“But we can’t get too down about things.”