Stead offers support to Crouch

Under-pressure Liverpool striker Peter Crouch needs to look no further than Sunderland’s Jonathan Stead for reassurances as he struggles to open his goalscoring account for his new club.

Just as Crouch is under pressure to justify his £7m (€10.2m) move from Southampton, Stead has found the going even tougher since Black Cats boss Mick McCarthy parted with £1.9m (€2.8m), almost half his meagre transfer kitty, on the England U21 international.

“I sympathise with him, it’s horrible,” said Stead.

“Everybody keeps talking about it while all I am trying to do is forget about it.

“It’s difficult. Sometimes you just have to stop thinking about scoring that first goal, play your own game, hope that things will drop for you and the chances come when you are least expecting them.

“I feel for him but I don’t like people comparing me too much with him. We have to play our own game and I feel after last Saturday’s game against Aston Villa, I am getting back to the form of a couple of years ago.”

But Stead goes into tomorrow’s bottom-of-the-table clash with Birmingham willingly prepared to sacrifice his first goal for the club for three points.

“That first goal would be the icing on the cake for me,” said Stead.

“But I would willingly not score for the next three games if we got the three points each game, it wouldn’t bother me at all.

“I never thought for one minute Sunderland would be in this position when I came here, but the game with Birmingham is a chance for us to change things round a bit.

“Three points would take us above Birmingham so that would be a psychological boost for us because coming off after last Saturday’s home defeat by Aston Villa was the worst feeling I have had for a long time.

“It was such a massive game for us and while we felt we had let ourselves down, more importantly we let the crowd down – they shouldn’t be coming to watch that.

“The gaffer had us in on the Sunday to watch a video of the game and he had a few choice words with individuals but I think it was needed as it is not acceptable to be playing the way we are.

“We’ve worked hard on the training ground every day this week to put things right trying to become a lot more solid and making sure we difficult to break down because we have been leaking too many goals.

“That is something that was addressed straightaway. We have to be better as a unit, a lot more organised and hopefully that will be evident against Birmingham. The only way we are going to scrape through this tough time is if we all stick together.”

Both clubs have lost five successive Premiership matches but McCarthy insists the onus is on his side to come out on top and claim a first home victory of the season.

“This is another tough game for us, we are both at the bottom, but it’s a game we feel we are capable of winning,” he said.

“The pressure is on the home side to win games like this and I would imagine Birmingham will come here thinking if they take a point that is okay.

“Birmingham have been without a game for three weeks and get used to the fact they are second bottom but I am sure Steve Bruce won’t be enjoying the feeling.

“We have had our injury problems and so have Birmingham and maybe that has contributed to the positions of both clubs.

“Sometimes it works when you get players back, sometimes it doesn’t but what we have to do is to get back to playing the football we did early on in the season. The results may not have been great but we had good performances.”