HOWARD WILKINSON used to berate journalists for appearing so maudlin when he conducted his Sunderland post-mortems.

"You look as miserable as I feel," he said. Oh, how we laughed!

The soul-destroying experience of listening to Wilkinson's inane ramblings made it even more refreshing to be in the company yesterday of Mick McCarthy, who landed on Wearside with a grin and a neat line in self-deprecation.

Either Wilkinson's sense of humour was as dry as the Sahara, and lost on a North-East audience, or he had left it at the Football Association.

McCarthy, on the other hand, chuckled his way through his unveiling as Sunderland's potential saviour. "It's sad you don't remember me as a wonderfully silky footballer," he smiled.

"I was at a dinner in Ireland once that Eusebio was also at. The guy who was doing the introductions waxed lyrical about Eusebio, as you could of course.

"He said Eusebio was a wonderful player who scored thousands of goals in millions of games, and this and that.

"And then he said, 'Here's Mick McCarthy, who played for Ireland and had a long throw.'"

Tales like that may not take Sunderland off the foot of the table, but they do remove a little of the gloom that has enveloped the Stadium of Light. Both McCarthy and Wilkinson may hail from South Yorkshire, but the new man in the Sunderland hot-seat could never be described as dour.

What was McCarthy's reaction when the call came from Bob Murray on Monday evening, asking him to be Wilkinson's successor?

"Yee-ha!" McCarthy said, and his enthusiasm for the daunting task of saving Sunderland's skin was clear.

Wilkinson treated even the most innocuous inquiry as if it were a verbal hand grenade.

After just five months in charge, his relationship with some journalists was colder than a January afternoon at Sunderland's ramshackle old training ground.

McCarthy, on the other hand, combined his steely determination with a smattering of one-liners that endeared him to his audience.

"I've slept with a coat hanger in my mouth to keep the smile on my face for the last few days," he said.

McCarthy refused to be drawn on whether he and Sunderland will be smiling at the end of the season. But at least we should have a bit more fun along the way than another few weeks with Sergeant Wilko at the helm had promised.

Read more about Sunderland here.