TOMMY Smith last night pledged to banish the disappointment of FA Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Millwall by helping fire Sunderland back into the Premiership.

A dejected Smith trudged away from Old Trafford after Tim Cahill's 26th-minute strike proved enough to take the Londoners through to a final meeting with Manchester United.

Sunderland enjoyed plenty of possession in a fiercely competitive and, at times, fractious affair. But they were unable to convert their territorial superiority into an equaliser and are now left to focus on a frantic final month of the league season.

An instant return to the top-flight was always the priority in August and, with the Black Cats currently in third position, there could yet be a golden lining to a campaign blighted by yesterday's defeat.

"We've had to bounce back from all sorts of things this season and we've got that experience to draw on over the next few weeks," said Smith, whose four FA Cup goals played a major role in taking Sunderland into the last four.

"The FA Cup has always been a side issue to us this season. We're disappointed and this has been a great day out for us, but the league's the main thing.

"Promotion would ease the disappointment of missing out on the Cup final. We're still hoping for an automatic spot but, hopefully, it'll be a play-off place at least.

"We're sitting pretty in third and we're pushing for that second spot so that's what we've got to focus on."

Yesterday's game brought the curtain down on a thrilling FA Cup run that had looked most unlikely as Sunderland struggled to brush aside North-East neighbours Hartlepool in round three.

Subsequent wins over Ipswich, Birmingham and Sheffield United fuelled dreams of Cardiff glory but, ultimately, there was to be no emotional final appearance in the year of Bob Stokoe's death.

Falling at the final hurdle is never easy to accept but, after the trauma of crashing out of the Premiership last season, Smith feels Sunderland's FA Cup exploits have proved the club is heading in the right direction again.

"The defeat isn't a negative," said Smith. "It's good that we came as far as we did because it shows how much we've improved since the start of the season.

"It's a bit too early to think about the positives too much but I'm sure that, once things have settled down, we'll look back to see that it's been a great run.

"It's credit to all of the lads and the management that we've got through to the semi-final of the FA Cup.

"It's disappointing at the moment but, once we look back, we'll see that we've played really well throughout the competition. That's added to the confidence and I'm sure we'll take that into the league form."

Sunderland started well yesterday but, as the game wore on, they gradually found themselves becoming embroiled in a ferociously physical battle.

That seemed to suit Millwall's style of play more than Sunderland and, while John Oster, Kevin Kyle and George McCartney all missed chances to level, the Lions just about deserved their passport to Europe.

"Everyone worked really hard," said Smith. "Millwall had a good game plan and they stuck to it. They got the early goal and then they made it hard for us.

"We expected a physical game because we've played them twice already and we knew it was going to be really tough.

"They're one of those teams who try to outbattle you so we knew we had to match them there and try to get the ball down onto the floor once we'd done that.

"I thought we did that in the first half and then, in the second half, I thought we passed them off the park.

"The fact we created the chances probably makes it more disappointing than anything else.

"We should have got back into the game but it wasn't to be and we'll have to focus on the league."

The win was Millwall's third success over Sunderland this season and, with the two sides currently occupying play-off spots, there could yet be two more meetings before the end of May.

"I'm sure they won't want to play us for a fourth and a fifth time in the play-offs," said Smith.

"I don't think there's many teams who would beat us that many times.

"If we do play them, bring them on, and we'll try to wipe out this record we've got this season."

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