MICK McCarthy has warned Sunderland's fans against viewing Aston Villa's 'Wearside connection' through rose-tinted glasses, and highlighted the role played by Kevin Phillips, Thomas Sorenson and Gavin McCann in the club's disastrous relegation.

The trio will all be back at the Stadium of Light later today as the Black Cats look to earn their first home win of the season against one of their leading rivals for the drop.

Phillips remains massively popular in Sunderland after scoring 130 goals in 235 games, while both Sorenson and McCann are remembered fondly for their performances as the club secured successive seventh-placed finishes.

Their inability to prevent the Black Cats tumbling out of the top-flight tends to be overlooked but, with the club's fans having turned on their own players during this month's 4-1 defeat to Portsmouth, McCarthy is urging them to remember what happened in the past as well.

The former Republic of Ireland boss has previously spoken of the "negative attitudes" he encountered when he arrived at the Stadium of Light and, while he has never named names, it is telling that neither Phillips nor Sorenson are on a list of players he would have liked to have been able to keep.

"I don't think there's any room for sentiment," said McCarthy. "The three of them that are coming back were all involved in the team that were relegated.

"Kevin said he should have left two years ago when I joined the club. That's always good to hear isn't it! There was a chance he could have left when he won the golden boot and I don't think he was ever the same player after that.

"Tommy Sorenson was a good keeper but Mart Poom was right in behind him and had two great seasons after he left.

"If there were two players I could have kept after I got the job, they would have been Kevin Kilbane and Gavin McCann. They would have been terrific for me in the First Division. If I could have kept them, I would have done.

"But they were leaving from the minute I got through the door. There was never any doubt about that.

"The situation was that players were going to leave. I think you'll also find that the situation was that they were Premiership players. Individually, they were all capable of playing in the Premier League and all wanted to play there.

"I've got no beef with that because players want to do well for themselves. Collectively, though, as a team, they were relegated. They were all as culpable and responsible as each other."

McCarthy is desperate to avoid his side suffering the same fate. The Sunderland boss took his players paint-balling last week in an attempt to lighten the mood, but admits the pressure on them will be as intense as ever by kick-off this afternoon.

Victory would take the Black Cats to within a point of their opponents but defeat would leave them at least five points adrift of safety. Even at this stage of the season, that would represent quite a mountain to climb.

For most of the squad, the weight of expectancy is nothing new. But, while the second half of last season was accompanied by the pressure of chasing promotion, McCarthy insists it is far harder to cope with the burden of being bottom of the league.

"It's the same kind of pressure as we were experiencing towards the end of last season," he said. "But it's also different because it's a totally different scenario.

"Last year, we were chasing something and we wanted to get into the Premiership. When you get there, it's fantastic for a couple of weeks, then you realise you have to play in it.

"It's tough when you're chasing the Championship, but you know you're one of the best teams in it and you go out every week knowing you've got more than a fair chance of winning that game.

"The pressure increases when you're going out knowing you're bottom of the league and that, if you make a mistake, you might get punished. Under those circumstances, it becomes harder and harder."

McCarthy is expected to make changes tomorrow in an attempt to turn his side's fortunes around.

Ben Alnwick is expected to keep his place in goal after replacing Kelvin Davis at Arsenal, but fit-again full-back Stephen Wright could replace Nyron Nosworthy, while Anthony Le Tallec should start up front in preference to both Jon Stead and Andy Gray.

Fellow Frenchman Christian Bassila is a certain starter in midfield, with his absence having co-incided with Sunderland's worst run of the season.

The Black Cats have conceded 16 goals in just five games since he hobbled off against West Ham, with neither Dean Whitehead nor Tommy Miller comfortable in his anchor role at the base of midfield.

"I've been at pains not to whinge about losing players," said McCarthy. "But perhaps some teams can afford to lose them a bit more than we can. Losing Christian and Julio Arca after the Middlesbrough game has not been an easy thing to deal with.

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