IT WOULD be interesting to know who is currently lower on Mick McCarthy's Christmas card list: Roy Keane or Jeff Whitley?

We will never know whether arrogance or stupidity persuaded Whitley to try to bamboozle the goalkeeper when it came down to sudden death in the play-off penalty shoot-out.

It looked like he ended up bamboozling himself. Perhaps he suddenly thought he was Thierry Henry when, in fact, he is a modest midfielder with a poor disciplinary record who would not be good enough for the Premiership had Sunderland got there.

He shouldn't take all the blame, however, after finding himself in the sort of intolerable situation which has made fools of better men like Chris Waddle.

Sunderland fans think the play-offs are a farce; Hartlepool fans, though briefly deflated, think they provide some end-of-season fun. There will be similar contrasting sentiments between the supporters of Hereford and Shrewsbury.

The Shrews are returning to the Nationwide League whereas Hereford are not, despite the latter earning 17 more points over the course of the season.

Sunderland had nine points more than Crystal Palace yet had to endure the lottery of the shoot-out against the Londoners, in which one striker declined to come forward and the other had been taken off.

Neither Sunderland nor Hartlepool have enjoyed much play-off joy over the years, although there is no need for inquests at Victoria Park as Pool have done wonderfully well.

It's a different story at the Stadium of Light, where Premiership football is essential. The fates were clearly stacked against Sunderland as vital refereeing decisions went against them home and away, most crucially allowing Palace to equalise in injury time in the second leg.

The agony of then drawing level in the shoot-out only to lose in sudden death could not have been greater, and it cannot be right that such far-reaching consequences stem from a second's action.

But it is no use the Black Cats crying over spilt milk.

They have to find a way to move forward without breaking the bank. It is all very well Jason McAteer warning the club they are in danger of sinking like Sheffield Wednesday, but has he justified his high salary? As one of the better paid players, if further savings have to be made he must be a leading candidate for the exit door, along with Whitley.

AS Paul Collingwood was trying to get from Lord's to Chester-le-Street to play for Durham yesterday, I wondered how long it would take him to get out of London.

It was no surprise to hear this week that the transport in our gridlocked capital was the major reason why it is lagging behind Paris and Madrid in the bid for the 2012 Olympics.

Barbara Cassani is to be applauded for handing over leadership of the bid to Sebastian Coe, but her reasons are questionable if she thinks he has a better chance of influencing the voting members of the IOC.

Time was when they needed substantial sweeteners, but hopefully such corruption has now been stamped out and they are more concerned about the logistics of getting athletes to their events without running into traffic chaos or falling foul of points failures on the underground.

Whether Lord Coe can influence such matters is open to doubt, and given our recent track record with the Millennium Dome, Picket's Lock and the Wembley fiasco, I expect we'll still be bronze medallists when this race is finally decided.

THEY still have eight years to sort out London transport before the 2012 Olympics, but it looks like time is up for swimmer Mark Foster in his bid to get to Athens.

Having finished 0.05sec outside the 50m freestyle qualifying standard set by coach Bill Sweetenham at the British trials, he went to the European Championships in Madrid at the weekend determined to achieve the required time. But this time he was 0.15 shy of the target in finishing fifth in the final.

Foster, 34, is unchallenged as the UK's fastest sprint swimmer and his times are inside the official qualifying standard. But they are not good enough for Sweetenham, so he won't be going to Athens.

IT WILL be a miracle if this year's Olympics are not tainted by a drugs scandal, with American sprinter Kelli White threatening to blow the whistle after accepting a two-year ban.

A training partner of Dwain Chambers, she admitted using drugs and will be stripped of the gold medals she won in the 100m and 200m at the World Championships in Paris last summer.

The runner-up in the 200m was Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, a Russian who tested positive for a steroid after winning the world indoor title in March. Surely White's gold will not be handed to her.