Quinn has Sunderland looking up at last

NIALL QUINN might have no inclination to return to management, having notched five defeats in six matches in his spell as caretaker back in 2006, but the Sunderland chairman clearly hasn’t lost all his powers of dressing room persuasion.

Quinn proved he can still inspire his players with a rousing pre-match speech on Saturday, outlining what he hopes the future will bring at the Stadium of Light and stressing the importance of finally guaranteeing Premier League safety.

With the impact of the financial crisis on the housing and credit industries in Ireland, the Drumaville consortium are eager to sell their stake in the club to the majority shareholder Ellis Short, whose arrival on Wearside precipitated the end of Roy Keane’s spell in charge, in the next few weeks.

The context of a valuable point, which takes Ricky Sbragia’s side five points clear of the bottom three – a tally that looks unassailable considering the bottom five have won four games between them since the beginning of March – explained Quinn’s calm reaction to the final whistle, which was limited to a sigh of relief.

The short-term task of keeping the club in the top flight for a third season looks close to completion and goalkeeper Marton Fulop acknowledged that the words from Quinn, at the invitation of the manager Ricky Sbragia, had a significant effect on the players.

“Financially this is the league to be in,” he said. “If the club was to get relegated it would lose so much income. It is vital for every club to stay up if you ant to build for the future and the news we heard before the game is going to be a big step forward.

“Before it we would have been happy with a draw. It is a good bonus to go into the last two matches.”

Whether Sbragia, who has another year to run on his 18-month contract at the Stadium of Light, will be the man to guide the club through what Quinn considers to be a defining period, remains to be seen.

He is in charge of an expensively-assembled squad that has under-performed badly this season but feels that only minor changes are required at the end of the season.

“The qualities are there but maybe they sometimes lack a bit of belief,” Sbragia said. “In the summer we will change the squad slightly. It won’t be drastic, it just needs tweaking here and there.”

Although Newcastle’s game against Middlesbrough tonight will be a significant factor in whether relegation is avoided, Sbragia will spend the evening in his local pub, which does not have a TV, as he did for Alan Shearer’s side’s goalless draw with Portsmouth a fortnight ago.

“It is not a case of not bearing to watch it, I just won’t watch it,” he added. “I have things to do other than thinking about football. We can only do what we do and I am not that concerned about Boro or Newcastle. It is up to them to worry now.”

While Kieran Richardson was wasteful in front of goal, Fulop also did his job with a fine one-handed save three minutes into added time to keep just a seventh clean sheet of the Premier League season and the fact that it was the 16th time Sunderland have failed to score tells another story.

The club’s listless season is put into further context when Sbragia’s side are compared to Bolton, whose bench is regularly made up of seven players that did not cost a penny although Gary Megson was heckled once again despite moving the club on to 40 points.

“We are a small club still and try and build season by season,” the Bolton defender Gretar Steinsson said. “You look at the amount of money other teams are spending, where they are in the table and think about how difficult it is for a club like us.

“Look at Sunderland and how much they’ve spent. We’d love to be able to spend a third of what they can. You have to consider the amount of money we can spend and that last year was a really difficult season for us.”

REFEREE: Mike Riley (Hampshire) 6: Missed a late handball from Steinsson but otherwise solid. Gave Megson a lecture in the first half and was implored to send the Bolton manager to the stands by the home fans.

MATCH RATING. * A real shocker. That the first effort on target came in the 94th minute said it all and while a point could be enough for Sunderland, Bolton are limping through the final weeks.