MICK McCARTHY hopes the prospect of equalling two unwanted records this afternoon will help Sunderland end an abysmal run of form against high-flying Chelsea.

Should the Black Cats lose today it will be the club's ninth straight loss - a feat achieved only once before on Wearside back in the 1976-77 season.

And if Sunderland can stop the rot, but only claim a draw, they will equal a 14-game winless record set in 1985.

McCarthy, who is still searching for his first victory since taking over from Howard Wilkinson in March, is keen to see his squad avoid going down in the history books for the worst possible reasons. "I don't want the record," he said. "If the worst should happen and we do go down I don't want to finish with the worst amount of points.

"So even in the position we are in, despite what other people may think, there are still some goals and targets to achieve. We should want to win. We should not need that to psyche us up. Every player should want to win.

"Chelsea v Sunderland at the Stadium of Light is a great fixture, in fact any fixture in that stadium is a great fixture.

"I could try to motivate them by asking if they want to be here at the end of the season or they want to go somewhere else. But they should be motivated to winning games. It's not about nine in a row."

McCarthy is able to select midfielder Gavin McCann, back from suspension, in his side for the first time since taking over.

But the Sunderland chief has no fewer than 15 players ruled out through injury and is expecting a tough time against the Blues.

However, McCarthy insists his players will be ready and he believes Claudio Ranieri will be expecting an easy ride.

"We will be cautious without paying them too much respect," said the former Republic of Ireland boss. "They are a very good team but you always respect whoever you play.

"We have to try to temper our ambitions to get forward and score.

"If I was Claudio Ranieri I would be saying 'if there was ever a time to play Sunderland this is it.' We are bottom of the league, just lost two games. That's his spiel.

"My spiel has to be completely the opposite because there should never be an easy time to come here."

Despite the prospect of playing First Division football next season, Sunderland's players are all determined to fight until it is impossible to avoid the drop.

And McCarthy insists he would be angry if his squad threw in the towel. He said: "No player is going to come out and say we are dropping out and if they did I would be disappointed with them.

"While there is hope we have got to keep having a go at it. I've not looked at it mathematically, all I have said all along is that we have got to try to win games.

"They are quite right to be positive. If any of them said otherwise I would be annoyed with them to say the least."