Sunderland - 0 Middlesbro - 3: Rather than the hotbed of football they should rename the north-east of England the hot-seat of management. After the travails of Graeme Souness on Tyneside, Steve McClaren arrived here last night with most of Teesside on his back. But after Middlesbrough's first win in 10 Premiership games, the pressure belongs to Wearside and Mick McCarthy.
Long cut adrift at the foot of the table, Sunderland had been given some hope by their victory at West Brom a fortnight ago and by Boro's slide down the league table. Even after being humiliated by Brentford in the FA Cup, there were Wearsiders who sensed Boro were vulnerable last night.
How false that optimism proved as Sunderland were dismantled. Emanuel Pogatetz and Stuart Parnaby made it 2-0 before the interval, and after a brief, fruitless home rally, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink rattled in a third.
Stood on his own on the touchline, McCarthy looked a forlorn figure.
McClaren, meanwhile, breathed a sigh of relief. He will expect this to be a corner turned. For Sunderland there are surely no more corners, just a straight road to relegation.
McClaren stated on Monday that Boro's treatment room held 10 of his players, but he was still able to name a side featuring seven internationals. Experience is the manager's default mode, though he has placed trust in youngsters this season, and last night 19-year-old Andrew Taylor was at left back with the 17-year-old Lee Cattermole in midfield.
A series of early misplaced Sunderland passes riled those who had turned up, though Boro were hardly more fluent and there was little warning of their breakthrough. By the 19th minute neither goalkeeper had made a save, and when Dean Whitehead was punished for a clumsy handball 40 yards from his own net there seemed little threat.
But Stewart Downing took the free-kick and arced it high towards the penalty spot. Pogatetz rose above Stephen Caldwell and the Austrian's header crashed down off the crossbar and in.
What little home confidence remained after the Brentford debacle disappeared amid a torrent of catcalls, and 12 minutes later Boro secured a two-goal half-time advantage.
Parnaby stalled a Sunderland attack down the left and then broke forward at pace. Thirty yards out, he slid a pass to the feet of Mark Viduka. The Australian, with his back to goal and unable to swivel, gave the ball back to the advancing Parnaby who drove his shot past Kelvin Davis from 18 yards.
McCarthy responded immediately by replacing his left back Danny Collins with the striker Kevin Kyle. It was Kyle's first league appearance for 18 months and it was asking a lot of the Scotsman to rescue this predicament.
There was no instant impact, but five minutes after the interval Liam Lawrence did at least force Mark Schwarzer into his first stop of the game.
Close to the hour the sheer force of Sunderland's will produced the moment when a comeback might start. Lawrence managed to screw in a cross that Jon Stead and Antony Le Tallec both laid off neatly. The final touch ran to the incoming Whitehead and from around 10 yards he really should have scored, but did not even hit the target.
Three minutes later a blocked Whitehead free-kick ran kindly to Caldwell but he supplied a centre-half's finish with a weak shot straight at Schwarzer.
Then, with 20 minutes left, Hasselbaink showed each of them how it should be done with afirst-time strike from Gaizka Mendieta's pass.
Guardian Service
SUNDERLAND: Davis, Danny Collins (Kyle 32), Caldwell, Breen, Hoyte, Arca, Miller, Whitehead, Lawrence, Stead (Daryl Murphy 78), Le Tallec. Subs not used: Alnwick, Nosworthy, Bassila. Booked: Caldwell.
MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Taylor, Southgate, Pogatetz, Parnaby, Downing (Johnson 77), Cattermole, Doriva, Mendieta, Hasselbaink (Yakubu 79), Viduka (Davies 64). Subs not used: Jones, Maccarone. Booked: Doriva. Goals: Pogatetz 19, Parnaby 31, Hasselbaink 71.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).
