Football
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Gus Poyet: Jozy Altidore 'devastated' after horror miss in West Ham draw

Sunderland manager Gus Poyet has backed Jozy Altidore to come good after the American missed an easy chance to break his goal-scoring drought on Saturday.

An otherwise dull 1-1 draw between West Ham and Sunderland was notable for the horrendous miss by the Black Cats striker, who fluffed a shot from three yards with the goal at his mercy.

Altidore's goalscoring record for Sunderland now stands at one in 41 league appearances and Poyet described the American as "devastated'' by his howler in first half injury time.

Poyet said: "He was devastated. I have never seen Jozy like that. But we've got a long week and a great game to play next week and if we win that nobody will remember today or the miss or whatever we have done in a different way.

"If Jozy had scored you would have said it was a great decision to play him. I tried to say at him at half-time to look for the net and don't keep thinking about that, but he needs a goal.''

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