Upbeat McCarthy hails harmony in Wigan camp

MIDFIELDER James McCarthy is hoping Wigan can begin 2012 by bringing Sunderland back down to earth at the DW Stadium tonight.

Martin O’Neill’s side defeated Manchester City at the Stadium of Light, a day after Blackburn beat Manchester United and Aston Villa toppled Chelsea, to climb further away from the relegation zone.

Wigan are still in the bottom three but showed good spirit to salvage a point from an entertaining draw with Stoke on St Stephen’s Day, fighting back from 2-1 down in the final moments despite being a man light following the sending-off of Gary Caldwell.

“To come back in the fashion we did against Stoke shows how much we’ve come along in 2011,” McCarthy said.

“There’s a real togetherness in the squad with a strong belief and long may that continue. Sunderland’s going to be another really tough game, they’ve picked up a lot of points since Martin O’Neill took charge.”

However, Sunderland, having watched Villa and Blackburn go down yesterday, are keen to get all three points an Sebastian Larsson urged his not to waste their shock victory.

Having pulled out all the stops to snatch three priceless points at the death, Larsson admitted it would be a major disappointment not to build upon that at lowly Wigan.

“Of course it would be, but at the same time, it’s going to be an extremely tough game, especially after yesterday,” he said.

“Now we want to try to win that game as well. We have put some points on the board and we can relax a bit more and try to play with a bit more freedom.”

Sunderland will travel to the north-west with O’Neill’s resources having been severely depleted by sickness and fitness concerns, a fact which made their victory over City all the more creditable.

Larsson himself spent New year’s Eve in bed with a bug which floored Keiren Westwood and Kieran Richardson, while the groin problem which forced Wes Brown off after just 26 minutes added his name to a list which already included Phil Bardsley, Titus Bramble and Michael Turner.

“To be honest, it’s a bit of a crazy schedule, especially with them [Wigan] having one day extra rest. It doesn’t really make sense.

“Most of the lads were on their knees in there and really tired and if we had lost the game right at the death, it would have been extremely tough to get yourself going again.

“But now we have got three points and hopefully a bit of confidence, and we can go to Wigan with a little bit less pressure on our shoulders.”