MICK McCarthy today confirmed his long-held belief that Wanderers have the talent on and off the field to beat the drop

The new Sunderland boss, who saw his dream of winning his first game in charge turn into a nightmare at the Stadium of Light, says Sam Allardyce has enough management ability and enough quality at his disposal to win the battle for survival.

"I thought they'd stay up all along because of Sam," the former Republic of Ireland boss said after the 2-0 defeat that left the Black Cats firmly rooted at the bottom of the table and needing a miracle to avoid relegation.

"Sam's been in that position a long time and he's got his players what I would call battle-hardened. They nick results. They've had a lot of disappointments too, conceding goals in the last minutes of games, but they've got some talented players.

"They are quite happy at times to sit back and soak up the pressure then, when they get the ball, they've got one or two players - Mendy, Okocha and Djorkaeff - who can play."

McCarthy, appointed in succession to Howard Wilkinson last week, had generated new hope on Wearside that, despite their perilous position, Sunderland could still pull off a dramatic rescue mission. He was given a rapturous welcome but hope turned quickly back to despair as the fans saw their team outclassed and eclipsed by an impressive Wanderers performance.

"It was going to be one of two things," McCarthy said later. "We were going to win and move forward on a wave of optimism and go down to West Ham next week thinking everything was going to be great, or we were going to get the reality check. Unfortunately we got the reality check.

"Forty-two thousand optimists who thought we were dead and buried the weekend before last perhaps thought a new manager and a new sense of optimism he brought to the players could keep us up. The reality check was that we got beat by the fourth bottom team!

"Once we conceded the first goal we started to chase it and they are canny fighters, Sam's team. They were able to sit back and pick us off."

McCarthy's brief is not to keep Sunderland in the Premiership and, although he continues to focus on short-term objectives, he knows in his heart that the hard work will start in the summer when he makes the necessary adjustments for life back in the Nationwide League.

"I've got to be positive," he insisted, refusing to accept relegation as inevitable. "I like a scrap and I like a confrontation. I like it when people think everything's against us ... but I don't like it when they are all proved right.

"As long as there's life in it, we've got to believe we can win the games.

"But it was never going to be done in three days, perhaps it won't be done in nine weeks or nine games. I am glad I came here though.

"Had it been in the summer and they had been in the First Division and I was out of work, I would still have taken the job."