A SURVEY of more than 2,000 people recently showed that Saturday, July 30 was Britain's choice for the "best day of the year". Try telling that to Mick McCarthy.

The Black Cats boss spent it watching his side lose to lower-league opposition for the second time in the space of four days while extending their goalless run to more than four-and-a-half hours in the process.

He also saw one of his most influential players, Julio Arca, hobble from the field following a horror tackle from Sheffield United striker Danny Webber and, while fears of a serious injury were quickly allayed, a left-back crisis is still looming with both George McCartney and Danny Collins already on the sidelines.

To make matters worse, McCarthy also learnt that Stoke City defender Clive Clarke would be joining West Ham despite his last-ditch attempts to prise him to the Stadium of Light. Sunderland are understood to have matched the Hammers' £400,000 bid for the Republic of Ireland international on Saturday morning, but Alan Pardew's willingness to include two loan players in his offer ultimately proved decisive.

Hardly a good day at the office then and, with just 12 days to go to the start of the new Premiership season, Sunderland hardly have the look of a side ready to fly out of the traps.

Pre-season friendlies are, of course, a notoriously unreliable indicator of form - the Black Cats were equally under-whelming at Scunthorpe and Doncaster last summer before romping to the Championship title - but the club's current lack of goals is still a major cause for concern.

Jon Stead, who only scored twice for former club Blackburn in the whole of last season, has been a willing enough worker in Sunderland's six pre-season games, but his lack of a killer instinct was laid bare again at Bramall Lane.

He had the goal at his mercy when Dean Whitehead whipped over a 27th-minute cross from the left flank, but proceeded to direct his header high, wide and not very handsome. He was not the only Sunderland player guilty of profligacy on Saturday but, at a cost of £1.8m, it was his misses that were the most conspicuous.

"It preys on the minds of the players and that's what I don't want to happen," said McCarthy. "Jonathan is a good player, but he has come in and is trying to form new partnerships.

"It takes time to build new partnerships on the pitch in all positions. They have to get a feel for one another and, at the minute, they are still feeling their way around.

"Marcus Stewart went 13 games without scoring last season, but we were playing well and still managed to score and he came back strongly at the end. That highlights it. They will score."

Sunderland's strikers haven't scored yet in pre-season. The club's two goals in six games have both come from midfielders - Martin Woods and Liam Lawrence - with Stead, Chris Brown and the currently ill Stephen Elliott all drawing a blank.

Yet the trio's lack of success in front of goal is perhaps indicative of a deeper problem, namely McCarthy's inability to spend the kind of money he would have liked to in the transfer market this summer.

With Kevin Kyle nursing a long-term hip problem that could yet keep him out of the bulk of the season, McCarthy is facing the very real prospect of kicking off the campaign with just three recognised strikers, none of whom are tried and tested at the highest level.

While the Black Cats boss proved last season that you do not need to spend big to succeed, his current blend of forwards hardly looks like a recipe for success.

Sunderland's board are to be commended for the way they prevented financial meltdown when the club were relegated from the top-flight two seasons ago but, while they have always stressed that prudence would be their watchword this summer, whether or not they dig deep in the next two weeks could dictate whether or not they are performing the same rescue act again.

McCarthy has identified the striker he would like to sign before Charlton travel to the Stadium of Light on August 13 - Derby's Grzegorz Rasiak - and has already had a £1m bid turned down by Rams officials.

Rasiak scored in Derby's 3-0 win over Burton Albion on Saturday and his boss, Phil Brown, recently claimed the international would be going nowhere this summer.

There are suggestions, though, that Derby would be willing to sell if Sunderland were to up their offer by another £500,000. At the moment, such a move does not appear to be on the cards.

"We did make an approach for Rasiak and I have seen that Phil Brown has been at pains to say that he is going to stay," confirmed McCarthy, who could now turn his attentions to Walsall's England Under-19 international Matt Fryatt.

"So be it. We're still looking and we're trying our best to get someone in."

McCarthy's summer spending currently stands at £3.15m, not a figure to be sniffed at given the club's debts, which still stand at around £35m. Whether or not it rises above the £4.5m mark could yet prove crucial to Sunderland's standing over the next nine months.

Rasiak's finishing prowess would have been welcome in South Yorkshire as the Black Cats carved out a number of decent opportunities despite again performing sluggishly against limited, if spirited, opposition.

Stead, Dean Whitehead and Carl Robinson all wasted good chances while, at the other end, goalkeeper Kelvin Davis produced two superb saves to thwart Nick Montgomery and Michael Tonge.

Sheffield United's breakthrough came 14 minutes from time when Steve Kabba side-footed into an empty net following Davis' save from Andy Gray, but the game's major talking point came seven minutes earlier.

Arca was left in a heap when Webber clattered into him with his studs showing, sparking a 17-man brawl in which Gary Breen grabbed the Blades striker around the neck.

In any other game, the Sunderland skipper would have been sent off but, in a welcome display of leniency, referee Howard Webb opted to award both players yellow cards. For McCarthy, that was a rare ray of light on a day that otherwise failed to live up to its billing.

Result: Sheffield United 1 Sunderland 0.

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