MICK McCARTHY insists there is no room for player dissatisfaction in the Sunderland camp as the club prepares for an end of season promotion run-in.

The Black Cats boss felt the frustrations of certain unnamed members of his squad at the weekend when he picked the team to play at Crewe.

Midfielder Liam Lawrence was one of those to lose his place in the starting line-up following the return from suspension of full-back Stephen Wright.

While both Stephen Elliott and Julio Arca had to settle for places alongside Lawrence on the bench after recovering from injuries.

McCarthy, whose side face Plymouth at the Stadium of Light tomorrow night, would not name names but was aware certain players were annoyed and has called for them to all stick together to help Sunderland's bid for a top flight return.

"I was at pains to say to the players that there were a couple of lads not happy with me because I'd left them off the bench and a couple of lads not happy with me because I didn't play them but it's not about that, it's about the club," said McCarthy.

"Nobody needs to tell me, I know that they're not happy just looking at them and their body language and I was at pains to say after the game it's not about their personal feelings.

"It's like me putting two subs on, it's not my personal feelings. The lads have won the game. The club is in second with another three points and it's about them - not the individual players, us collectively. If we go up we'll do it collectively and enjoy it collectively and if we don't, and end up in the play-offs, we'll do that collectively."

Sunderland have to go to both Wigan and Ipswich before the end of the campaign for two fixtures that are looking more and more like deciders every week.

But McCarthy said: "I think it possibly will go to the last week of the season. The three of us have got the potential to lose yet and pick up points. I think it's games like this when we have to come and pull out all the stops and get a good 1-0 that might be the ones that win it.

"I want to finish on May 8, just like Joe (Royle) does and just like Paul (Jewell) does and I guess anyone else behind us would like to but it's looking more and more as the days go by as if it might be two from the three of us. We all want to be finished and not in the play-offs."

McCarthy, whose decision it was to bring both Arca and Elliott off the bench before the pair combined to win the match, has paid tribute to his coaching staff for spotting Elliott's talent.

The striker grabbed his first goal since February 4 but is the Republic of Ireland's record Under-21 goalscorer.

McCarthy said: "Ian Evans and Dave Bowman deserve more of the credit for Stephen than me because they'd seen more of him. I'd seen bits of him but Taff and Dave Bowman hung their hat on him and what's nice is when you've got staff like that I can trust their opinion and their judgement."

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