Michael Walker talks to former Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthyabout his unenviable task of keeping Sunderland and their supporters in thetop flight

At 10 minutes to three this afternoon Mick McCarthy will walk out in front of some 40,000 Sunderland fans at the Stadium of Light and punch the air. Then the hard part begins.

Whichever of the managers located in the Premiership's bottom four keeps their side up this season will be deemed to have had a most successful last blast, but the praise should McCarthy do so would dwarf that for Gary Megson, Glenn Roeder or Sam Allardyce.

Somehow perilous does not seem strong enough a word to encompass the situation McCarthy inherited this week and as he gave his first pre-match club press conference for seven years at the stadium yesterday, McCarthy wisely laced natural ebullience with dashes of reality. He mentioned "moral courage".

But, again wisely, McCarthy stayed away from offering a specific remedy for a losing mentality that he has witnessed from afar - "If I knew that I'd sell it," he said. But there were two points that did stand out from the "give 100 per cent" and "if each man does his job" stuff. These were the importance of the Sunderland crowd and the player that might be lurking inside Tore Andre Flo.

McCarthy has had three days on Wearside and a lot of his time seems to have been spent reminding Sunderland that one of their greatest attractions is the passion of their support.

This is not a cynical ploy on McCarthy's part but it is smart. "Too right I am," he replied when asked if he was going on to the pitch before kick-off.

"The first cheer I get might be the last one." Sensitive to the poor relationship between the players and fans at home, McCarthy then stressed that the last bit was a joke.

But Sunderland are hopeful that McCarthy's human touch will lift the Wearside crowd out of their disillusionment and that they, in turn, will inspire the team bottom of the Premiership to win a fourth game at home this season.

"It's a collective thing," McCarthy said. "The only way we will have any chance is collectively." This, of course, is the sort of thing to be expected of any new manager, not just one in a mountainous relegation battle.

Yet Howard Wilkinson said it was not his style to walk into the middle and rabble rouse, so he watched his first game in charge - against West Ham in October - from the Stadium of Light's directors' box and then, when the side were losing, from the dugout.

There was, literally, no fanfare accompanying Wilkinson's arrival. It counted against him ultimately, and so the opposite might count for McCarthy.

Neither did Flo, Sunderland's record £6.75 million signing, count for Wilkinson. Flo was Peter Reid's last throw of the cash and was seen as a long-term replacement for Niall Quinn. Wilkinson's first act, in fact, was to drop the Norwegian from the 16 to face West Ham.

Flo went on to start and finish less than half Wilkinson's 20 league games. He scored three times in that period and looked a shadow of a shadow of the player he was at Chelsea.

McCarthy chose to recall that time in Flo's career rather than his current malaise. McCarthy's words made sense: "I feel for Tore. Just because he's 6ft 4 or 5in he's not going to replace Quinny. He ain't Quinny. I've said to him that I'd expect him to win a few headers, but he doesn't do that, his game's about his feet. If we're going to play with Tore the question is whether we can get different service in to him. But he can play. And he's not been a disappointment to me; he starts with a clean sheet."

Flo scoring for the first time in 2003 would help both men. McCarthy recalled when he was relegated as a player with Manchester City in 1987 and the feature he remembered first was chances coming and then going. Imre Varadi got all of nine goals that season.

But that is five more than Flo now, and five from him in the last nine games would make a massive difference to Sunderland - and not just as a team fighting relegation.

Prize-money in the Premiership means that each position is worth £591,000. Even if Sunderland were to fail and climb only two places, the club would be £1.2 million better off in the First Division.

McCarthy knows that those figures really do matter, although as Jason McAteer revealed, McCarthy may be thinking even bigger.

"I spoke to him when he got the job," McAteer said, "and what comes out of his gob? 'Six points, first two games.' First thing on his mind. 'Get them.' That's how positive he was. He demands success. The first thing he said to us was that we've got to win this game against Bolton." After today, Sunderland go to West Ham next Saturday.

McCarthy's Sunderland firefight starts here.

Guardian Service