Fiery O'Neill insists he belongs at Sunderland despite miserable form By DAMIAN SPELLMAN, PRESS ASSOCIATION PUBLISHED: 16:40 GMT, 10 December 2012 | UPDATED: 16:44 GMT, 10 December 2012 Comments (0) Share A defiant Martin OâNeill has insisted he is not just the best man for the Sunderland job, but the only one. The 60-year-old arrived on Wearside to overwhelming popular acclaim 12 months ago, sparking a revival which hauled the Black Cats away from the Barclays Premier League relegation zone and to safety long before even he had expected to accomplish the first phase of his mission. A year on, OâNeillâs men find themselves in the bottom three as a result of claiming only two victories in their last 23 league games, and he heads into tomorrow nightâs re-arranged clash with fellow strugglers Reading with former England and Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer having used his newspaper column to suggest anything but three points could prove fatal for the Ulsterman. Tough times: Martin O'Neill needs to pull Sunderland out of the mire However, the former Aston Villa manager continues to enjoy the support of owner and chairman Ellis Short and remains confident he can turn things around at the Stadium of Light. OâNeill said: 'So what do you do then? So you go and put someone else in charge, he gets a group of 12, 13 games and canât win any matches? Itâs the same thing. 'I donât want to sound wildly boastful, but not only am I the best man for the job, I am actually the only man for the job. 'We will steer it through, we will get calmer waters ahead - it might take us a few months to do that - and then we will see. 'If we are continuing for the next couple of years to be in this position, then I will certainly question it then.' Improvement: Adam Johnson scored on Saturday, with Steven Fletcher absent Despite the disappointing sequence of results, the red and white faithful have not yet turned on OâNeill, the manager whose appointment they had craved for years before Steve Bruceâs departure made it possible. Indeed, they applauded his players off the pitch at the end of Saturdayâs 3-1 home defeat by Chelsea after seeing them launch a spirited, if ultimately fruitless, fightback. OâNeill was allowed to invest heavily in Scotland striker Steven Fletcher and England winger Adam Johnson during the summer with Short forking out £22million in transfer fees alone for the pair. But while Fletcher hit the ground running - he had scored six goals for the campaign before an ankle injury ruled him out of the Chelsea game - Johnson has taken time to settle in, although his goal against the Blues capped one of his more encouraging displays to date. Nevertheless, Sunderland have won only two league games all season, and just one on their own pitch, and the manager knows until performances start to yield points, it is difficult to claim progress has been made. Fitness: Fletcher's condition is improving but he is not likely to feature on Tuesday He said: 'Progress eventually, no matter what you think about it, is determined by results on the pitch, and we are in a similar position, so you could say whether we have made that sort of progress or not. 'Itâs interesting because itâs really the same squad that we have had - we still have, I think, about 19 players from last season. 'The spirit is still there, and that was the thing I noticed most, really, that it hadnât been broken, and that spirit should stand us in really decent stead. 'But spirit alone is eventually not enough. Of course you need to add and we need to get stronger if we can.' Fletcher is making progress, but is unlikely to be involved tomorrow night, and that could mean another opportunity for teenage striker Connor Wickham, who replaced him at Norwich and deputised at the weekend.
I've been saying for quite a while that th second half of the season is going to be much better than the first. HAWAY THE LADS!
Hark the herald angels sing Easter takes it up the ring hes **** scared of rebel bhoy cos he wants him for his toy Joyful when he shags a lad following the footsteps of his dad hark the herald angels sing his arse can take a butchers ring
Not quite sure where he has emerged from, but I believe he supports a team called Abu Dhabi or some other Scottish outfit..
