AT the start of last week, Sunderland supporters were enthused at the prospect of watching Bruce Springsteen perform at the Stadium of Light next summer. By Saturday evening, however, thousands had decided that they did not want another boss called Bruce anywhere near their club.

Steve Bruce has endured some difficult times since his appointment two-and-a-half years ago, most notably when his side slumped to a 5-1 defeat at Newcastle United, but nothing compares to the events that accompanied the final stages of a 2-1 loss to Wigan that will surely come to be regarded as the beginning of the end in terms of his Wearside reign.

The Black Cats boss had already been forced to listen to sporadic chants of “Bruce out” during a second half that built inexorably towards a bitterly inevitable climax, but the real damage occurred in the wake of Franco Di Santo's stoppage-time winner.

As soon as the ball hit the back of the net, a chant of “You fat Geordie b******, get out of our club” swept around the ground.

Previous outbursts had been low-key affairs, bursting from nowhere but petering out before the extent of their reach could be assessed.

This was markedly different. It was pointed, personal and readily embraced by thousands of supporters. The average football fan is notoriously fickle, but no matter what happens in the future, it is hard to see how Bruce can recover.

The silent majority have made up their mind and for all that stability is not to be sniffed at, Saturday felt like a tipping point in the fractured relationship between manager and fans. Always starting at a disadvantage because of his Northumberland roots, Bruce's position looks all but untenable now.

Ellis Short refused to rush into a judgement on Saturday evening, but increasingly it looks a matter of when not if the new chairman pulls the trigger.

The statistics are damning – two home victories since January 1, 31 points from 31 league games since the turn of the year, two wins in all competitions this season – but it is the increasingly poisonous atmosphere that is surely most damaging.

“I can understand the fans' frustration,” said Bruce. “It's difficult at the moment because it transfers on to the pitch. But when you are up against it like we are, you have to stick together and try to turn it round and see it through.

“You can only do that with a few results, and unfortunately, especially at home, we haven't had enough victories to appease the public.”

The question therefore becomes, 'Would a different manager make it easier to record some wins?' There are contrasting viewpoints, but it is surely undeniable that the Stadium of Light is hardly a welcoming environment in which to play football at the moment.

Leading through Seb Larsson's eighth-minute opener – the Swede rammed home the loose ball after Ali Al-Habsi failed to hold on to Nicklas Bendtner's strike – Sunderland dominated the opening half-hour, but were unable to claim a second goal.

Kieran Richardson, Wes Brown and John O'Shea were all thwarted by Al-Habsi, leading to an increased sense of anxiety that was already building by the time Larsson was adjudged to have fouled Victor Moses on the stroke of half-time, enabling Jordi Gomez to equalise from the spot.

The second half was a nervous, ragged affair, and while Sunderland continued to dominate possession, there was a grim inevitability about the stoppage-time mix-up between Brown and Keiren Westwood that resulted in substitute Di Santo rolling the ball into an open goal.

The narrative was reminiscent of so many Sunderland games this season – the dissipation of a bright opening, a lack of support for a lone striker, an absence of creativity in midfield and a reluctance to change things until the last 25 minutes – but the increased tension in the stands added an alarming new dimension to the mix.

That tension would surely not be as apparent if a new manager was in place, although it remains questionable just how much improvement is possible from the current squad.

Bruce is hardly blessed with a plethora of attacking options following Connor Wickham's knee injury, and while it can be said of other struggling managers that they have lost the dressing room, that does not appear to be the case here.

There was no lack of effort on display at the weekend, and as long as the players continue to believe in Bruce's methodology, perhaps there is an argument for not creating further upheaval by changing the man at the top?

“You can only turn things round by sticking together,” said O'Shea. “We have the belief behind everyone at this club and we have to stick together now.

“Of course we heard it (the chanting). We don't want to be losing at home to a team that is absolutely struggling and you are scratching your head thinking how are we not winning from the chances we've had.”

Having taken just one point from matches against Fulham and Wigan, the next two games are integral to Sunderland's prospects of pulling clear of the relegation zone.

They travel to Wolves on Sunday, where they will lock horns with former manager Mick McCarthy, before entertaining another of the sides currently below them in the table, Blackburn Rovers, the following weekend. Lose one or both of those, and Bruce's time will surely be up.

“It's not the time for patience any more,” Bruce conceded at the weekend. “There is a repetitiveness about the whole thing. We are judged on results and unfortunately they have not been good enough.”

Clearly, something has to change. Will it be the identity of the manager? Only time will tell.