Jermain Defoe was happy with his Sunderland debut on Saturday despite a 2-1 defeat at his old club Tottenham. "We did well," he told Sky Sports News HQ. "It was always going to be a difficult game. When you go to White Hart Lane, there are going to be spells when Spurs have a lot of possession, but the shape was good, the gameplan was good and when we won the ball we created some chances, which was important.
"I hope to make a difference. I've always been confident that if I get chances I will score goals and that's why I'm here. That's what you get judged on."
"It could have been different. I thought I might have had a penalty at the time and we had a good chance after that. There were a lot of positives to take out of the game.
"I thought we deserved a point," added Defoe, who scored 143 goals for Spurs in two spells at the club. "If we continue to play like that we will pick up a lot of points in the next few games."
Defoe was training with Spurs' development squad during the MLS off-season before his switch to the north east and said the idea of working Sunderland boss Gus Poyet appealed to him.
"It helps when you sign for a new club and you know a few of the players," he added. "The lads have been great and it's funny, I feel like I've been here years.
"When you know the manager that helps. I spoke to Gus on the phone on a few occasions and we spoke about systems and how he wanted to play.
"Obviously I played with Gus at Spurs and even before that he was someone I admired as a player, as someone who did so much in his career and who knows the game.
"I hope to make a difference. I've always been confident that if I get chances I will score goals and that's why I'm here. That's what you get judged on.
"I've scored a lot of goals in my career and hopefully I can bring that to the team. First and foremost I need to get match fit - I felt good the other day considering I hadn't played for a long time. I feel sharp, am training well and hopefully we get some points in the next few games.
"I enjoyed it at Toronto, met some good people. It wasn't for long and towards the end it was frustrating because I picked up an injury and wasn't able to play as many games as I would have liked to. But the beginning was great and it was a good experience."
