McCarthy backs O’Neill to work his magic

MICK MCCARTHY has no reservations that Martin O’Neill will work his magic and revive the fortunes of Sunderland – but is delighted to have made his close friend’s job more difficult by pushing the north east club closer to relegation trouble.

O’Neill will officially take charge at the Stadium of Light today and his first task will be to pick his shattered players up in the wake of the 2-1 defeat inflicted by McCarthy’s side at Molineux, in which caretaker boss Eric Black believes Steve Bruce’s replacement will have seen everything which is good and bad about Sunderland.

Sunderland have claimed just 28 points from their last 32 Premier League games and O’Neill will return to management after a 16-month sabbatical to a club in 17th place and just one point above the drop zone. “I am glad I have made his bleeding job harder when he gets into work,” said McCarthy.

“I am thrilled I have made his job that bit more difficult than it looked after about 60 minutes in the game. Martin is a pal of mine, but I did not want to do him any favours. We have to be beating the teams who are scrapping around down there with us.

“Martin is a pal of mine and I am sure he will do a great job at Sunderland, a club I still have great affection for from my time up there. He has always improved teams wherever he has gone and he will do the same. I don’t do advice, but I will take some from him.”

O’Neill watched from the director’s box and would have sniffed victory from Kieran Richardson’s 52nd minute goal, but Steven Fletcher’s two second half goals in the space of eight minutes were crucial.

“If the penalty had gone in, you’d like to think we’d have gone on and won the game. I thought that was the pivotal moment in the whole of the game. I don’t want to blame the person who took it because I think Seb Larsson has been outstanding this season, but the confidence and energy drained a little bit when it didn’t go in and the rest of the game became hard for us,” said Sunderland caretaker boss Eric Black.

“The players are obviously desperate for a win, and that means a bit of anxiety can come out in the play. If we had gone 2-0 up, I think we would have been in control.”