McCarthy heaps praise on Oster

The gaffer has made a point of praising John Oster after he scored the winning goal in yesterday's 2-0 home defeat of Reading.

Oster scored the second goal with a header and the win saw Sunderland rise to 5th in the table, with 16 from a possible 27 points so far this season.

The 24 year old midfielder signed for Sunderland in August 1999 from Everton for £1m but it's really only this season that the Welshman has started to show real form. To top it off, he played the full 90 minutes for his country in Wales's 4-0 defeat of Azerbaijan in a Euro 2004 qualifier in March, and has been selected for the squad for the qualifier against Serbia & Montenegro next month.

McCarthy said "I've given John Oster every opportunity. He's a very talented footballer who has added to his game.

"He was not one of the stars. But people enjoy watching him, and he took his goal very well."