SUNDERLAND club captain Niall Quinn last night pleaded with disgruntled fans to forget about protests and rally round the team in their last-ditch fight for Premiership survival against Derby County at a full-house Stadium of Light this afternoon.

"I understand their frustration, I understand that we are not where we want to be but I would ask supporters to think twice about protesting," said the crowd favourite.

"If the fans can get behind us like they did when Sunderland played in the final game of the season at Maine Road when I was a Manchester City player 11 years ago it would be just what the doctor ordered."

Quinn has been alarmed at suggestions that the supporters should give vent to their feelings of discontent about a season gone wrong when Sunderland's future is still in the balance.

And he remembers the disastrous consequences of mass crowd protests at Manchester City when the fans turned on chairman Peter Swales.

He said: "I have been in a better position than most to see what effect protests can have on a club.

"I was at City when the fans decided to protest against Peter Swales. It certainly affected the players and it affected the way the club was able to perform. It was the worst two years in the club's history through mass protests."

He added: "We are delighted the talk of fans' protest has died down because we all know the importance of this game.

"Any anger the supporters might feel should be put to one side and we must try to get a good, positive performance. I think the fans realise how important a part they can play in that.

"Anybody who feels that they want to get into a bad humour and want to protest can do it at my game on Tuesday night - they can come in their hordes and protest!"

A patched-up Quinn was in the Sunderland side which last tasted relegation from the top flight when they lost 1-0 to Wimbleton at Selhurst Park five years ago.

He said: "I can remember the build-up to the Wimbledon game. I was trying to get myself right for the game with injections and hobbling out on to the pitch.

"It is so much different now. We have tremendous quality here and we have caused ourselves problems because we have allowed the tensions to get to us.

"But I think in a one-off game like this we are far better equipped and we are better able to cope with the demands.

"We went into the game against Wimbledon tentatively but we are going into this game head first saying 'right, let's take this game by the scruff of the neck.'

"Another reason to go into the game with confidence is to look at the quality of the players we have in the team - a load of us are going to the World Cup for a start.

"We realise we have made things hard on our manager, Peter Reid, and we feel about that and would like to put it right against Derby. We owe him this one.

"But this club is unrecognisable since that game against Wimbledon and from where it has come it would be dreadful to have to take a year out.

"This season we have never thought of ourselves as struggling. We have always thought we had enough to stay that little bit ahead, whereas the season we went down we always feared we didn't have enough points on the board.

"This year it's an easier game, with all due respect to Derby.

"There are a lot more positive things about this one - the game is at home and we have Liverpool playing for us as well."

Quinn has been surprised by Sunderland's disappointing season after twice finishing seventh from top of the Premiership and has his views on the reasons for it.

He said: "I think first and foremost we have reacted terribly to the first tension and criticism the club has received in years.

"We reacted badly and we went under a little bit - and for us to do that to a man like Peter Reid is unforgivable. Peter Reid deserves far more than that.

"After four years of everything going well we hope this will be a wake up call and we can get away with it and the club can get back up to where it was.

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