MARTIN O'Neill's childhood love of Sunderland has been mentioned on more than occasion in the last week, but the future Black Cats boss has previously been reluctant to go into too much detail about his affection for all things red-and-white.

However, the Insider has dug around and found an interview he gave to the Birmingham Mail in December 2007, in which he outlined the reasons for his support of the club.

"Because of where I was brought up and the type of background in Ireland, where you were Celtic or Rangers, I was a big Celtic fan," said O'Neill.

"But in England, when everyone was choosing their side, mine was always Sunderland. They're my old team. I supported them as a kid and Charlie Hurley was my hero. The sparkle never leaves you."

Hurley, a Cork-born centre-half, made 358 league appearances for Sunderland between 1957-69 and is still revered as a club legend.

O'Neill remembers a number of matches from the era, and has particularly strong memories of the infamous defeat to Bury on Boxing Day 1962 that ended the playing career of Brian Clough, who he later worked under at Nottingham Forest.

"I remember Hurley missing a penalty and Sunderland losing their first game at Roker Park for two years," he said.

O'Neill is also able to recollect his first trip to Roker Park as a player, even though it was not a particularly successful afternoon for his Forest side, who lost 4-1 in September 1972.

"It was the year they won the FA Cup," he said. "They were inconsistent, but they were a very good footballing side with Dennis Tueart and Bobby Kerr. We were wretched at the time - but it was 'BC', before Clough."

BET365 clearly think O'Neill will be appointed as Sunderland's new manager, as they have already opened a number of markets relating to the Northern Irishman.

Sunderland are 9-2 to win a major trophy under O'Neill and 4-1 to claim a top-six finish during his managerial reign.

The bookies clearly feel there is plenty to do in the short term though, as the Black Cats are 33-1 to finish above Newcastle this season.

PREMIER Sports TV made an interesting choice of co-commentator for Wednesday's Blue Square Premier game between Wrexham and Darlington.

Former Quakers boss Mark Cooper took on punditry duties little more than a month after his dismissal from the club.

He was particularly scathing about a number of players, most notably Paul Arnison and Ian Miller, and Arnison was quick to hit back at his former boss on Twitter.

Arnison tweeted: "Nice to see our former manager hammering the lads on TV tonight. Maybe if he made better decisions and training was better we wouldn't be in this ******* mess in the first place. Think a pint of bitter is in order and grow up!!"

DARLINGTON'S youth team have been in fine form on the pitch this season, but it looks as though their impact is also being felt away from the football field.

Youth-team player Jamie Barton caught a youngster throwing stones at his car earlier this week, and came up with a novel punishment.

Barton tweeted: "12-year-old throwing a stone at my car on his way home from school, he wasn't expecting me to pull over and make him do ten press ups. #bully"

THE raffle at this week's Local Heroes Awards proved a productive affair for the region's footballing stars.

Boro boss Tony Mowbray won a set of brandy glasses, Hartlepool coach Micky Barron won a signed Middlesbrough shirt and Ritchie Humphreys won a VIP day out at Croft.

Spare a thought for Sunderland defender Matt Kilgallon though. He won a pair of VIP match tickets for St James' Park. It'll be interesting to see if he uses them.