MICK MCCARTHY stressed the importance of partnerships when reflecting on his gameplan for Saturday's encounter at Leicester.

The Sunderland boss was commenting on the introduction of Chris Brown for Marcus Stewart as the match at the Walkers Stadium entered its final third.

Stewart, without a goal in eight games going into the match, drew another blank and was replaced with 62 minutes gone and the score 0-0.

Six minutes later and with Brown having already tested City goalkeeper Kevin Pressman, Sunderland scored the winner when, from a corner resulting from Brown's dipping shot, Stephen Caldwell headed home.

While Stewart had worked hard all afternoon he had not really come close to ending his drought, Brown having much more of an impact in considerably less time.

"Had we not won that I think there would have been some criticism of me playing Stewy on Saturday, I know that," McCarthy said.

"I think Stewy was kind of surprised to play but he and Stephen Elliott have been my best pairing.

"I am not always interested in what anybody else thinks about who is better than who else.

"There are partnerships on the pitch - Breen and Caldwell is a partnership, the left back and left winger is a partnership, central midfield players are a partnership.

"Stewy and Stephen Elliott have been the best partnership - they might not have scored the goals but we have played well with them.

"But Browny was excellent for 15 minutes at Millwall last Friday night when he came on.

"He has had a good week's training and I knew he was there and, while some might have thought I would have put Michael Bridges on, I thought he gave us a bit of extra height, a bit of strength and a bit of pace because I thought they were vulnerable to that to be honest."

Meanwhile, Caldwell has tipped Argentine Julio Arca to go from strength to strength after signing a two year extension to his contract.

Arca had eight months left on his current deal but, after months of speculation, put pen to paper at the end of last week.

Said Caldwell: "It's excellent. As you can see he is such an important part of the team and I am over the moon that he is staying with us.

"Hopefully he can start to play better football than what he is already playing, which seems a bit hard to do because he is so good."

* Rotherham manager Ronnie Moore believed his side were on their way to a first league victory - before being denied by a Wolves comeback.

Martin McIntosh had given the Millers the lead in the first half, only for Kevin Cooper and Carl Cort to grab the points.

Moore said: ''At the end of the day our second-half performance was not good enough.

''Their first goal changed the game it was a big, big moment.''

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