Smog descends over Mick

If there were any Sunderland supporters left who actually regarded this fixture as a north-east derby, there won’t be any longer. The game was dull and lacking renowned ‘derby’ passion, the atmosphere was lifeless, and the players didn’t seem to care.

At least this is from a Sunderland perspective. For while Boro didn’t sell out their allocation, their singing, passion and delight at this win showed they still regard their Wearside rivals as enemy number one.

On the other hand the apathy demonstrated by the Sunderland fans showed that Middlesbrough don’t rate as highly on their lists as the Teesiders may think. This apathy was of course not helped by another gutless and spineless loss.

McCarthy has said that as long as the players try their best, give their all and put in decent performances then he will keep his job. Fair enough. But with this performance immediately following the FA Cup humiliation at Brentford McCarthy can no longer use this as an excuse.

For barring 20 minutes of the second half, Sunderland were woeful. Emanuel Pogatetz put Boro ahead with a looping header on 19 minutes, when somehow managing to elude two arial challenges from Caldwell and Collins.

Then on 31 minutes youngster Stuart Parnaby robbed the dallying Arca in his own half and ran the length of the pitch unchallenged, exchanging a neat pass from Mark Viduka and firing past Davis to double Boro’s lead.

This was the cue for many Sunderland fans to leave the stands, and who can blame them. After all we’ve gone through this season the least we deserve is a team of triers. On this first half performance it looked like we didn’t even have that.

Kyle was immediately introduced after Boro’s second, on for the lacklustre Collins as McCarthy threw three up front.

With the big man on, Sunderland’s tactics were clearly apparent, bypassing the ineffective midfield straight for Kyle’s head.

And for the first 20 minutes of the second half it nearly worked, most notably Whitehead and Caldwell missing chances that could well have brought Sunderland back in the game.

Yet if there is any doubt as to why Sunderland are down at the bottom one only has to watch Middlesbrough’s third goal. Ineffective and unpenetrative pass after pass from Sunderland, resulting in Miller being robbed in midfield, one pass from Mendieta, one shot from Hasslebank, one more goal for Boro.

This league is cruel and ruthless. Sunderland are neither.