LAST January was a tough time on Wearside. Sunderland failed to win a single league game all month as they tumbled towards the First Division.

a listless 1-0 home defeat to Southampton offered worrying signs of what was to come, and manager Howard Wilkinson showed no signs of being able to stop the rot as he lurched towards the end of his disastrous five-month reign.

In short, the club were in a mess. But, on the other side of the Pennines, one of their future saviours was going through even harder times.

Sunderland's players might have been struggling to keep their club in the top-flight, but at least they had a club to play for.

Midfielder Jeff Whitley didn't even have that after Manchester City boss Kevin Keegan called him into his office and told him he was cancelling his contract at Maine Road.

The news was unwelcome, but it wasn't much of a surprise. The Northern Ireland international hadn't started a first-team game for City since May 2000 and, at just 27 years of age, was staring the footballing scrapheap in the face.

Nearly two months passed and nothing changed - either for Whitley or Sunderland - before Black Cats chairman Bob Murray made a decision that was to change the fortunes of both parties at a stroke.

Murray, finally deciding that enough was enough, dismissed Wilkinson and appointed Mick McCarthy as Sunderland boss.

With the Wearsiders heading towards the Nationwide League, the former Republic of Ireland manager didn't have a lot of room for manouvre. But he did have a phone number for Whitley.

One call later and the Zambia-born midfielder was heading for the Stadium of Light to begin his remarkable renaissance.

The turnaround wasn't easy, with Sunderland's parlous financial state forcing him to spend three months playing for the reserves on a non-contract basis.

But he signed a one-year deal with the club last summer and has gone on to make 40 appearances as the Black Cats have taken themselves to the brink of the Premiership.

Each player will have their own reasons to succeed in tonight's play-off semi-final opener against Crystal Palace but, for Whitley, helping Sunderland back into the top-flight would be the perfect way of saying thank you to the man who has saved his career.

"I owe the manager one big time," admitted Whitley. "Mick's always believed in me and stood by me. I had his backing and I trusted him.

"I'm sure people were talking to the manager about me at the start of the season because I did have a slow start, but his belief in me has never wavered.

"He gave me the contract and, once I got in the team, it all started to come together

"This time last year I certainly didn't think I'd be standing on the brink of the Premiership.

"I have to admit that I didn't even know where I was going to be at this stage of the season, so to come here and have had the season that I've had has been great."

Whitley's Manchester City career might have come to the sourest of ends, but his time at the club wasn't always so torrid.

The tough tackler made 126 appearances for the Blues, with one of his greatets moments coming in the cauldron of the play-offs.

Sunderland wrote their name into play-off folklore with 1998's epic First Division final against Charlton, but Manchester City were involved in equally as enthralling a final when they won the Second Division equivalent 12 months later.

City trailed Gillingham 2-0 as the game entered its final minute but, with Whitley pulling the strings at the heart of midfield, Kevin Horlock and Paul Dickov scored to take the game into extra-time.

Joe Royle's side won the subsequent penalty shoot-out and Whitley is hoping for a similarly fairytale finish with Sunderland this time around.

"The final was the big day," he said. "Getting there was like being in the FA Cup because everybody was talking about it and everybody wanted to be in the final.

"The semi-final wasn't an issue. We got to the final and the way we won it was incredible.

"We looked dead and buried but we came back to win on penalties - it was a great game to play in.

"The play-offs are tough. You don't want to get this far and blow it. We've had a long hard season to get where we are.

"We've had injuries to contend with and, now we're here, we want to make sure we get ourselves into the Premiership.

"We're all desperate to play in the Premiership, but we can't look too far forward.

"You can talk about it as much as you want, but you can't really start looking forward to it until it's done.

"We've got two hard games and then, hopefully, the final to follow that. We've had a great season and we can put the icing on the cake in the play-offs.

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