Sunderland must act quickly in wake of O'Neil sacking

There is nothing like the fear of relegation to prompt a club into taking drastic action.

Following yesterday's 1-0 home defeat to Manchester United, Sunderlandannounced that they had parted ways with manager Martin O'Neill as the prospect of relegation looms even larger for the Black Cats with a very difficult run in ahead of them.

Personally I am not a fan of firing a manager with under ten games left to play in the season but desperate times call for desperate measures.

It just hasn't worked out for O'Neill at Sunderland. Upon his arrival in Tyneside there was much hope and optimism but some of his purchases in transfer window have failed to deliver (I'm looking at you Adam Johnson) and when the truth of it all is that Sunderland simply do not score enough goals.

They had one shot on target against Manchester United yesterday which when you are fighting for Premier League survival simply isn't good enough. They have been poor in that department all season long with Steven Flectcher's 11 goals helping stay afloat this long.

News that Flectcher will miss the rest of the season due to injury is worrying as Sunderland's only proven attacking threat has gone. They will need the likes of Danny Graham, who was purchased in the January transfer window, to step up and shoulder the goal scoring load.

American owner Ellis Short must have a replacement lined up already and the club have announced that O'Neill's successor will be named in the coming days.

Whomever that may be has a real task on their hands to keep Sunderland up and considering they face Chelsea, Newcastle and Everton in their next eight games it is going to have be someone who can perform miracles.

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