Fans back McCarthy

Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy has received a vote of confidence from the club’s fans as he attempts to engineer an unlikely escape from the Barclays Premiership’s relegation zone.

The 46-year-old Yorkshireman was backed by 56.3% of participants in a telephone poll, conducted by local evening newspaper the Sunderland Echo, over whether he should be sacked.

Of the 2,266 responses received, 1,276 called for him to be left in place, while 990, or 43.7%, urged chairman Bob Murray to cut his losses and look for a new manager.

The poll was conducted in the wake of the Black Cats’ 10th successive defeat in all competitions and ninth in the league at Charlton on Saturday, which left them 11 points adrift of safety.

Former defender Gary Bennett welcomed the outcome of the poll.

“There’s been a lot of pressure put on Mick McCarthy and it’s great news for him, the players and everyone involved with the club,” he said.

“It’s good to see the fans are not putting all the blame for the current situation on Mick’s head.

“As everyone knows, there has not been a great deal of money made available to him to have a go in the Premiership, and what has been made available he has had to spread accordingly to build a squad, hopefully, to survive.”

McCarthy’s detractors believe he spent the limited funds he was given during the summer – £10m (€14.9m) to cover transfer fees and wages – badly on too many players who are not good enough for the top flight.

But his supporters believe he was not given enough to build a squad which had a chance of competing.

Murray has borne the brunt of the frustration at the Stadium of Light to date, but Bennett acknowledges the difficulties he faced with the club £40m (€59.4m) in debt.

“People will be looking to see where the buck stops, but the chairman has had his hands burned once already and I don’t think he wanted to go down that avenue again,” he said.

“The club had to undergo a major restructuring after relegation and I don’t think he would have been able to restructure it again. There might have been no club at all.

“We all know how many people were made unemployed and how many players had to be released on free transfers because of the wages they had.

“I can understand it from the chairman’s point of view and why he didn’t want to go down that avenue again.”

Bennett, now a pundit for BBC Radio Newcastle, admits his old club’s immediate future looks bleak.

The Christmas period, during which they play Bolton and Everton on Wearside and Blackburn and Fulham away, will shape their destiny according to Bennett.

“We have got the busy Christmas period coming up and that will tell us where our destiny lies,” he said.

“After those four games, we could virtually know what division we will be playing in next season – and if the results go against us, we will have one foot in the Championship.

“But if we have a good Christmas and New Year, it might persuade the chairman to maybe go and and get a player or two in January and have a real go for survival.

“Those four games are very important. We have got Bolton on Boxing Day at home – you pick a result up and, all of a sudden, it gives you a lift and a bit of a spring in your step.

“The confidence starts coming back and you go to Blackburn in better mood and might get another result. Once you get a couple of results, all of a sudden, you have momentum.

“But it can also go the opposite way – two defeats and you are looking at relegation.”