So, 4 more games and no more points. I couldn't really muster the enthusiasm to disect each game having listened to every painful minute, and I'm sure everyone has seen the write-ups elsewhere by now.

If we take the Liverpool game out of the equation - a game where the reigning European Champions barely seemed to get out of second gear - we had our chances to get something out of each of the games against Birmingham, Tottenham and Charlton. But didn't. Perhaps most disappointing were the games at home to Birmingham and away to Charlton, both poor teams struggling at the bottom end of the table - and in both games, we proved ourselves incapable of breaking down organised defences (although, Dean Kiely also pulled off some decent saves at the Valley), while at the other end our defence did their best impressions of Laurel and Hardy to gift goals to the opposition. Only in the Spurs game, one in which we expected to get nothing, did we actually come close to snatching a point, with one of the team's better performances so far. But we didn't.

So, who do we blame as we go into Christmas with five points - half the points that West Brom had last year, before their Great Escape? Recent polls in the Sunderland Echo, showed a small majority of fans (who voted) in favour of deposing Bob Murray as Chairman of the club... and its hard to look beyond that. While Mr Murray has provided us with the first class facilities at the Stadium and Academy of Light, he has robbed us of a team worthy of playing in such an arena. Wasteful spending during the Reid era, accompanied by the panic buys at the end, caused much of the club's current debt, constraining the existing manager to bargain basement buys. If, as looks likely, Murray presides over the club's sixth relegation during his stewardship, where does that leave him? Well, the honest answer is... still in charge - there seems to be no Abramovich's on the Wearside horizon, no interest (or money) from celebrity fans, so it looks like we're stuck with Bob for the forseeable. More careful stewardship - low budget transfers and wages - while we wait for the football bubble to "inevitably" burst...yo-yoing as we go from parachute payment to parachute payment.

A similar poll in the Echo showed support for Mick McCarthy running at about 56% of voters. In his time at the club, Mick led the team to a FA Cup semi, to the play-offs and to last season's Championship winners - why should we not be supportive? He has also lead the team to a total five points out of a possible 84 in the Premiership. He transformed a team of Premiership wasters into a hungry, hardworking squad of players who ultimately dragged the club back into the promised land. But have his recent purchases improved the squad or just padded it out? Is Davis a better keeper than Poom or Myhre? Is Miller better than Robinson or Thornton? Should Andy Gray have been bought, against the (apparent) advice of the scouts? Could Anthony Le Tallec look less bothered, if he tried? Bassila and Stead aside (players who actually look like they should be in a Premiership squad), none of the new players seem to have brought any extra class to the team. While we may have been unlucky with injuries to key players - Wright, Arca, McCartney, Elliott, Kyle - the jury is still out as to whether these players would have made any large difference anyway. And then there's the tactics... why do we continue to play a high offside line, particularly against teams with pacy forwards (i.e. every team in the Premiership, apart from us), when we have three of the slowest Centre Backs in Europe? Why play 4-5-1 when noone gets forward to support the lone striker? We don't have the players to cope with the "intricacies" of 4-3-3/4-5-1 properly, so why change from the effective (although at times unspectacular) 4-4-2 which served us so well in the Championship?

Noone expected our return to the Premership to be a cake walk, but the two teams who we finished ahead of last season are currently managing quite well, so where did we go wrong? Both teams are strong, fit, hard working, organised, have boosted their squad with classy/experienced players... the first four qualities applied to Sunderland last season, but now we seem bemused and run out of steam - compare the score at half time to the final score in most of our games and see when we are most likely to concede.

I think most of us now have accepted relegation as a foregone conclusion... I know, its a funny old game, but its rarely that funny. What is embarassing is the fact that we are likely to beat our own record of 19 points in a season - and the way we're going at the moment, we might beat it by some distance. And what hurts is that there is nothing we can do about it (unless Jim is a secret billionaire?). Barring some miraculous influx of cash, there'll be no change in the board, and no change in the manager (or type of manager), and it'll be more of the same....

Next game, on Boxing Day, sees Bolton Wanderers visiting the Stadium of Light, hot from qualifying for the knock out rounds of the UEFA Cup. Hmmm, unfashionable team, faded glory, new stadium... sound familiar? If only....

Sunderland team news brings no great changes. Stephen Wright managed to tweak a thigh muscle in his return from his calf injury which he got on his return from his knee injury which he got on his return from his ankle injury, so is unlikely to play in a game which sees Nyron Nosworthy already sitting out due to suspension - expect Hoyte to move to Right Back and Danny Collins to play at Left Back. Stephen Elliott is still troubled by his back problems, and with Chris Brown having injured a knee, Daryl Murphy has been recalled from his loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday.