JOHN Oster last night gleefully grabbed the chance to rebuild his career at Grimsby Town after putting his Sunderland nightmare on hold.

After making just 27 appearances in more than three years at Sunderland, Oster has moved to Grimsby on a month's loan with the blessing of Howard Wilkinson.

Oster, 23, has always been a peripheral figure at the Stadium of Light and has not played for the Black Cats first team since March 5, 2001

Such has been the Wales winger's inability to make an impact that he is best known on Wearside for bringing teammate Mark Maley's career to a premature end by accidentally shooting him in the eye with an air rifle.

Now, though, he is relishing the opportunity to put his miserable past behind him and start again at Grimsby - whom he left to join Everton in 1997 for £1.5m.

Oster said: "This is a good chance to get first team football under my belt.

"I heard about the move early this week and had a chat with Howard Wilkinson about what he thought was best for both parties.

"I said I need to be playing first team football to get sharper, he agreed, and here I am."

Oster left Sunderland on the same day that the club resigned themselves to losing influential midfielder Claudio Reyna for the rest of the season.

Reyna, who suffered knee ligament damage against Bolton Wanderers on Monday, is staring at a lay-off of up to eight months.

The injury is a huge setback to Wilkinson, who could replace Reyna with Paul Thirlwell at Charlton Athletic on Sunday.

He may try to bring in a creative midfielder when the market reopens in January - but he has already confirmed his transfer war chest is empty.

* Argentinian Julio Arca was stretchered off last night as Sunderland reserves came from behind to beat Manchester United reserves 3-1.

Arca was clattered on the left side of midfield after 55 minutes and was swiftly taken off.

However, despite having trailed to a second minute penalty from Daniel Nardiello, Sunderland hit back in style to leapfrog their opponents from fourth to third in the table.

Out-of-favour striker Marcus Stewart, looking to impress the watching management team of Howard Wilkinson and Steve Cotterill, scored two goals in the space of two minutes in the first half to help his side deservedly take the points.

His first followed a neat bit of play from Swedish midfielder Stefan Schwarz, with the former Ipswich man firing low and hard into the bottom left-hand corner.

And it got better moments later when Stewart coolly slotted home after a defensive lapse in concen

tration from United. Kevin Kyle hit a 90th minute effort to complete the victory.

Sunderland: Ingham, Rossiter, Clark, Thome, Varga, Williams, Piper, Arca (Dickman 55), Kyle, Stewart (Proctor 60), Schwarz. Subs (not used): Turns, Byrne, Graydon.