JOHN O’SHEA has urged his Sunderland team-mates not to allow Sunday’s dispiriting FA Cup defeat at Bradford City to derail their primary objective of remaining in the Premier League.

The Black Cats were embarrassed by League One opposition at Valley Parade, with Bradford’s players outperforming them from first minute to last as they booked a place in the quarter-finals.

Things were equally as fraught off the field as a large number of Sunderland supporters aimed a mocking chant at head coach Gus Poyet before booing their players off the field at the final whistle. In scenes reminiscent of the final days of the Peter Reid era, there was also an incident in which a group of Black Cats fans began scuffling amongst themselves within the away end.

It all adds up to a tense and potentially hostile environment ahead of Saturday’s home game with West Brom, a crucial fixture that pits the Wearsiders against the side directly above them in the Premier League table.

As skipper, O’Shea accepts it is his responsibility to ensure the mounting tension does not affect the squad ahead of such a pivotal occasion, but having been part of a dressing-room debrief on Sunday, the defender is confident there will not be a damaging fall-out.

“We have to draw a line under what happened now, but that’ll be easy to do,” said O’Shea. “It’s an important stage of the season, and we’re not going to allow an FA Cup defeat to get in the way of what we know we need to do in the league.

“Yes, it’s disappointing, and we know how much it means to everyone to have a good cup run. I’m sure people were thinking it was a great chance for us, and it was. But it’s gone now and there’s nothing we can do about it, so we have to forget it very quickly and focus in on the job in hand. We need to stick together and move on.

“We’re already looking ahead to Saturday, and because of what’s just happened, whoever we were playing next was always going to be a big game.

“There needs to be a reaction. The fans will want to see that, but as players, we’re all aware of the need to react positively too. There’s no panic here or anything like that – we’re all on the same page, sticking together and hopefully getting three points.”

If nothing else, at least the majority of Sunderland’s players have experience of dealing with the all-too-familiar lows that have peppered their time at the Stadium of Light.

Last season encompassed a rollercoaster of emotions, from the elation of the Capital One Cup run to the despair of being at the bottom of the table, and seemingly destined for relegation, before April’s four-point haul from away games at Manchester City and Chelsea.

This term, Poyet’s squad have already had to respond to the humiliation of an 8-0 reverse at Southampton, and while their next game after the St Mary’s surrender was a home defeat to Arsenal, their following away game was a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace that still represents one of their best displays of the season.

The squad’s resilience will be tested again at the weekend, but O’Shea is adamant his team-mates boast the mental strength required to deal with the situation.

“Last season had lots of ups and downs, so in a way we’re used to dealing with that,” he said. “It’s about staying calm and sticking to what we do – the more continuity we have, the better we’ll play.

“There’s a few little niggles and problems after dealing with the pitch, but hopefully they’ll be resolved in good time. We have to make sure we dust ourselves down, see what kind of squad we have for the weekend, and then make sure everyone is fighting together for the same goal.

“There’s a real determination that none of this will get in the way of what we have to do. Last season, people were saying that the cup run would be a distraction from the league. Now, there’s no cup any more so we’ll be fully concentrated on the league.”

Sunderland were on the back foot from the moment O’Shea deflected former Darlington loanee Billy Clarke’s shot into his own net at the weekend, but while it is hard to argue the Black Cats deserved a place in the last eight, it is undeniable that things might have been different had referee Kevin Friend awarded a penalty and dismissed Rory McArdle when the Bradford defender fouled Steven Fletcher in the first half.

“You know things have to fall right for you, and unfortunately some big things went against us fairly early in the game,” said O’Shea. “I think the whole stadium saw it was a penalty on Fletch, and had it been given, it would obviously have been a red card too.

“More than likely, that would have changed the game. Credit to Bradford – they used the situation very well, what with the pitch. But the disappointing thing for us is that when we had a chance to get back into the game, it was taken away from us.”