KEVIN KILBANE cut through the FA Cup euphoria sweeping Wearside last night and told his teammates: It's time to let our football boots do the talking.

The positive noises emanating from Sunderland have not been borne out with their desperate form that has seen them slump to the bottom of the Premiership.

While their FA Cup performances have been encouraging, they have been wretched in the League in recent weeks, and have not won any of their last eight Premiership games.

Kilbane has tired of talking up his side, only for their results to undermine his upbeat outlook, and he wants tomorrow's fixture at Tottenham Hotspur to become the watershed of their season.

The 26-year-old said: "We should have won at Blackburn and we would have liked to have taken that form into the League, but it never materialised.

"That's what we have to do now, but we've been saying it for too long and actions speak louder than words.

"The longer our rut goes on in the League, the more trouble we'll be getting ourselves in.

"We've been approaching the Cup games very positively. Hopefully, we can transfer that into League games.

"We've got enough quality in this team but we haven't been showing it.

"If we play anywhere near like we did against Blackburn in our League games at home, the crowd will get behind us and we'll get goals.

"We can get goals, with Kevin Phillips, Michael Proctor and Tore Andre Flo when he's fit. That's what we need to improve on, especially at home.

"Although we beat Blackburn, it's such a disappointment we conceded late on again.

"It was sloppy defending, and even though we won, we felt like we threw it away at the death.

"There's a danger now that we could concentrate on the Cup rather than the League. We can't let that affect us."

Kilbane, one of Sunderland's successful penalty takers in Wednesday's shoot-out win over Blackburn Rovers, has never progressed beyond the last 16 in the FA Cup.

He has a golden opportunity to improve on that record when Watford visit the Stadium of Light in eight days' time, and the lack of Premiership interest in the fifth round means the road to Cardiff could be clear.

Kilbane said: "We're not going to take the Watford game for granted but we've got a real chance of beating them.

"We lost to West Brom last season when they were in the First Division, and this season we'll really concentrate.

"Who knows what can happen now. After the fifth round, it's a lottery and it depends on what draw you get."

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