HOW Bobby Robson must rue the day Ruud Gullit saw fit to get rid of Stuart Pearce.

At a time when Newcastle United boss Robson is lumbered with a defence who can't defend, veteran Pearce is enjoying a new lease of life and playing out of his skin for West Ham.

It almost seemed that was literally the case as the ubiquitous Pearce popped up all over the place to foil and frustrate Sunderland in Saturday's FA Cup fifth-round clash at the Stadium of Light.

The man they call Psycho did much to kill off the Wearsiders' Cup hopes with an exemplary display of defending which featured a series of last-ditch tackles, blocks and headers.

Peerless Pearce, a Cup final loser with Nottingham Forest and Newcastle, is performing like a man possessed in pursuit of an elusive winner's medal.

He is also providing irrefutable proof that, even at the age of almost 39 and after two broken legs last season, he is still good enough to play for his country.

New England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson could certainly do a lot worse than recall Pearce, whose awareness and ferocious determinaton have not been dimmed by the passing years.

There is an all-too-obvious dearth of decent left-sided players in the national game and former England captain Pearce is simply too good to ignore.

The eccentric Gullit was prone to some bizarre decisions in his time in charge at Newcastle - dropping talismanic skipper Alan Shearer for the fateful St. James' Park derby defeat by Sunderland, and ostracising midfield fulcrum Robert Lee, are the two that readily spring to mind.

But pensioning off Pearce, whom Gullit came to regard as too old, and allowing him to join the Hammers on a free transfer in August 1999, was another gaffe of gargantuan proportions.

Hammers' boss Harry Redknapp, Sunderland counterpart Peter Reid and Black Cats' striker Niall Quinn, were all agreed that Pearce remains a top-quality performer and one of the most redoubtable figures in the game.

West Ham's resolute defending formed the platform for their 1-0 victory on Wearside.

And Pearce was more than ably assisted in a three-man central defence by Croatian Igor Stimac and Scottish international Christian Dailly.

Quinn and strike partner Kevin Phillips came up against an impenetrable barrier and scarcely had a sniff of a goal chance.

On one of the few occasions that they tried to combine to good effect, Pearce appeared out of nowhere to nod the ball off Phillips' head from underneath the bar.

But Quinn and Phillips were hardly helped by the service on offer from a Sunderland side sorely missing the left-flank forays of Michael Gray and attacking ideas of Don Hutchison, who like his skipper was ruled out through suspension.

A ban also deprived them of the honest midfield graft of Alex Rae - and Phillips is next to suffer for his disciplinary sins.

The leading 14-goal marksman will join Gray, Hutchison and Rae on the sidelines at Leicester this Saturday, when he starts a two-match ban for reaching ten bookings.

Without that key quartet, Sunderland must attempt to defy the odds and arrest a mini-slump which has now seen them lose three of their last four matches.