MICK McCARTHY admitted his side were not at their best at the weekend but said the goals from Dean Whitehead and Liam Lawrence were worthy of winning any game.

The Sunderland boss saw his team grind out a third successive win and third clean sheet on the road to come through arguably their most testing fixtures of the campaign.

The Black Cats are now sitting comfortably in a play-off position and head into the festive season only four points behind leaders Wigan, who face second-placed Ipswich next weekend.

The three points taken at Ninian Park on Saturday were crucial to the Wearsiders' Premiership aspirations given Wigan, Ipswich and Reading all won, something McCarthy recognised after the game.

"I thought that it was a game we should win, if we have aspirations of getting into the Premier League," he said.

"And I thought if there was going to be a winner then it was going to be us.

"I don't think we played as well as we can and certainly in the first half there was not much entertainment. We've ground a result out not playing at our best, but it was away from home and we've managed to win. We've been well organised and Thomas Myre wasn't tested too much."

McCarthy revealed with the game drifting into a no-scoring bore draw he was about to ring the changes shortly before Sunderland scored and the Wearsiders' eventual match-winner was favourite to come off.

"I don't think Deano (Whitehead) had his best game as he was full of cold," commented McCarthy.

"I had just told Sean Thornton to warm up because I didn't think Dean was at his best. But he hit one in training on Friday morning exactly the same so we know he is capable of it. It wasn't that I was going to bring him off but it was a contingency plan because, to be fair, Sean has a goal in him as well."

McCarthy quipped: "As it turned out, the quickest bloke to sit down when it went in was Sean.

"I don't think any other team is that much better than anybody else in this division that goes for us as well as Cardiff," he added. "Perhaps we had that little bit of quality and had a bit of luck from corners. They could have scored towards the end. But we did have two top quality finishes."

The Sunderland boss decided to shuffle his pack up front and brought in one of his starlets Chris Brown in place of Marcus Stewart, who had gone 12 games without a goal, alongside Stephen Elliott, who had fared slightly better with three goals in 12.

He said: "I felt it was important to try and freshen it up, and as it happens, we scored two goals and neither centre forward was involved.

"But it does not concern me where the goals come from, and I was saying that to them when they weren't scoring and we were winning games."

Read more about Sunderland here.