Gutless, embarrassing Sunderland

After watching his Black Cats cut adrift at the bottom of the league following a 1-0 loss to fellow strugglers Birmingham City, McCarthy lambasted his players as "embarrassing" and "gutless".

A goal 20 minutes from the end by substitute striker Julian Gray was enough to seemingly hammer the first nail in Sunderland's Premiership coffin before anyone has even started opening their advent calendar.

In a game crying out for an entertainer like the late George Best, the subject of an immaculately observed minute's silence following his death on Friday, Gray's goal, set up by fellow substitutes Jermaine Pennant and Walter Pandiani, was the only incident of real note in a game which must have had most of the 32,442 crowd wishing they had started their Christmas shopping early.

Sunderland are now five points adrift of Steve Bruce's side at the bottom and have gone 18 Premiership games without a win at home and have won just one in 24 anywhere.

That was at Middlesbrough earlier this season.

Admittedly, McCarthy has never had a settled side and has had to do without key performers, such as Julio Arca and George McCartney, for long periods.

Striker Stephen Elliott has been added to a list that also includes Kevin Kyle and Stephen Wright, among others.

His hand having been forced, then, McCarthy has had to give extended run-outs to players that lack not only top flight experience, but, in some cases, Championship experience.

Is there any wonder Sunderland are in such a parlous position?

"I am not having a go at the lads who have come here, because they did the job last year and got us up into this division, but it's a quantum leap (to play in the Premiership)," he said.

"I don't know how many players come from the second division to the Premiership. There will be (no teams) buying them to play in it. We did.

"We get Liam Lawrence (Mansfield), Dean Whitehead (Oxford), Andy Welsh from Stockport reserves, Stephen Elliott from Manchester City reserves, Chris Brown from our youth team.

"Would they be in Premiership teams? They would be in the squad and each and every one of them could contribute coming in, but, when I am having to throw every one of them in together, we are finding it tough at the minute."

But excuses to one side, Saturday's game must be viewed in isolation. The the opposition were just as poor on paper as Sunderland. Five defeats on the bounce attests to that.

Until the introduction of the pacy Pennant, only the City midfielder Muzzy Izzet stood out. However, even he could not force the opening that the game so desperately needed.

That was left to Pennant and fellow replacements, Pandiani and Gray, to achieve.

The former Arsenal and Leeds winger drove down the right with 23 minutes left, centred, and, when Pandiani's header was parried by the promising Alnwick, Gray was on hand at the far post to bury the rebound.

Save for a sharp shot from Stead in the first half, and a curling effort from Lawrence in the second, Sunderland never looked like scoring before or after Gray's strike.

In fact, such was the home side's lethargy in front of goal that when on-loan Liverpool midfielder-cum-striker Anthony Le Tallec skied a ball into Row Z from a promising position, McCarthy allowed his head to drop before declaring 'No.17, your time is up'.

The Frenchman, despite his recent words to the contrary, simply doesn't appear up for the fight.

All too often he was to be found gloved hands down by his side, head in the clouds.

A bottom-of-the-table scrap, played out in a freezing hail storm, was clearly not the reason he took up McCarthy's offer to swap Anfield for the Stadium of Light for a year.

If there is one person on Wearside for whom the end of the season can't come quick enough, then it is he.

But Le Tallec is not the only one who deserves all the brickbats that will come Sunderland's way between now and their next game at home to Liverpool on Wednesday.

Welsh spent more time on the deck than on his feet and was rightly hauled off at half-time, while Whitehead looked half the player he was last term.

In fact, singling players out might rightly be viewed as unfair as collectively, Alnwick apart, they all let the side down and will, if things don't change soon, send it down, as well.

McCarthy, always the most brutally honest of the North-East's three Premiership managers, did not hide from that fact.

"Up until the goal, it was two ordinary teams, two poor teams, playing poor football and struggling and it looks like it's going to be a very ordinary 0-0 draw," he said. "But, when we conceded the goal, our last 20 minutes were embarrassing.

"Had it been us who scored the goal, you might have seen Birmingham capitulate, but, unfortunately, that happened to us and it is hugely disappointing for me to see an embarrassing and gutless performance in the last 20 minutes."

On this evidence, Sunderland's only hope is to bring in fresh blood - experienced blood - when the transfer window re-opens in January.

The fans who chanted the name of former star Kevin Phillips know that, too.

But, even if chairman Bob Murray was able to furnish McCarthy with enough funds, getting people in could be harder than it sounds.

"At the minute, who would come?" asked McCarthy, almost rhetorically. "I would need some good players to come and turn it around. Are they going to come? Can we get them in?

"First and foremost, myself, the players and everbody else need to get ourselves in a position that we might attract somebody who would want to come - who could see a light at the end of the tunnel. That's the immediate issue for me and not people coming in."

McCarthy had better hope he sees the light soon, for his, and Sunderland's, sake.

Result: Sunderland 0, Birmingham City 1.

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