SUNDERLAND boss Mick McCarthy has defended his side's disciplinary record ahead of tonight's Stadium of Light showdown with Gillingham and insisted: "We are not a dirty side."

Jeff Whitley's second-half dismissal at Reading on Saturday took Sunderland's red card count for the season to nine, and no First Division side have had more players ordered off than the Black Cats.

The Northern Ireland international was already out of next month's FA Cup semi-final after being sent off against Preston earlier this month and last weekend's dismissal has extended his ban to five games.

Julio Arca has also seen red twice this season, with Kevin Kyle, Joachim Bjorklund, John Oster, Sean Thornton and Ben Clark all having been given their marching orders.

But that list does not necessarily tell the whole story.

Whitley's sending off at Reading came despite him making clean contact with the ball before catching James Harper, while previous dismissals involving both Arca and Kyle have been dubious to say the least.

Lengthy suspensions are the last thing that McCarthy needs going into such a crucial stage of the campaign, but the Black Cats boss will not be ordering his side to change their competitive nature to prevent further dismissals.

"We've got to compete," said McCarthy. "I don't know how many people other teams have had sent off or booked - but I don't regard us as a dirty side.

"I read things saying I've bemoaned this or I've raved about that. I'm not bemoaning anything, but I do think some of the red cards have not been warranted.

"When they are warranted I'll hold my hands up. John Oster's at Norwich was the victim of a bad tackle, but he deserved to be sent off because he flicked his foot out.

"But I thought Julio's against Sheffield United and Wigan were a nonsense and Kevin Kyle's here against Wimbledon was as well.

"With those and Jeff's on Saturday, I can take four of them out of the equation straight away."

Sunderland have no right of appeal against Whitley's dismissal at the Madejski Stadium as the midfielder was sent off for two yellow cards rather than a straight red.

But, with video evidence increasingly being used to punish players for incidents that have gone unnoticed, McCarthy has challenged the authorities to allow replays to be used to clear players wherever possible.

"The rules should be changed," he said. "You should be able to appeal a sending off for two bookings.

"I don't see why they can't use video evidence to look at a decision that's been made. They use video evidence to prove things, if it's an elbow off the ball or something like that. So I think, if it can be used to get a yellow card rescinded, why not?

"It's not going to change so I'm not going to whinge about it, but we are going to miss Jeff because he's been fantastic this season."

The 28-year-old will play the final game before starting his suspension this evening, with fit-again Jason McAteer poised to replace Sean Thornton on the right of midfield.

But, with Whitley unable to play again until the middle of next month, McCarthy has admitted that he will be working overtime in an attempt to bolster his midfield ranks before Thursday's transfer deadline.

"We're losing Jeff and it would be nice to have someone coming in to strengthen that area," said the Sunderland boss.

"But getting someone out of another team is difficult. The play-offs mean that anyone in the top half of the table has a chance of being promoted and anyone in the bottom eight or nine has a chance of being relegated. None of them want to lose their players.

"Premiership clubs are the same. We'd struggle to buy anyone out of there and, with every position in the final table being worth about £500,000, they don't want to lose their players.

"I'm the same - I'm not going to let any of my best players go. So we're all in the same boat and it's not easy to get someone in."

Darren Byfield is McCarthy's most recent acquisition, and the Jamaica international proved his worth with the opener against Reading on Saturday.

Byfield was handed his first start in place of Tommy Smith but, with the former Watford striker coming off the bench to score Sunderland's second, the fight for a starting berth in the Black Cats' side shows no sign of abating.

Kevin Kyle was the other frontman to have started at the weekend and the burly Scotsman insists that he has no preference about the identity of his strike partner tonight.

"I've played with all of the three other strikers and I really don't mind playing with any of them," said Kyle.

"I said to Tommy after the game that, coming off as a striker, you're sometimes devastated when another forward goes on and scores straight away.

"But, at this stage of the season, I don't really care as long as somebody's scoring the goals that are getting Sunderland three points."

l Sunderland's game at Wigan on Saturday, April 24 has been brought forward to 12.30pm to allow for live coverage on Sky.

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