IT IS THE FOOTBALL MANAGER’S nuclear option, when the excuses will wash no longer, when pleas for patience are lost amid the jeers, when performances slump to such jarring mediocrity that no sugar-coated spin can mask the deficiencies. Mick McCarthy reached for the button on Saturday evening, casting public doubt on his players’ talent, application and right to play in the Barclays Premiership.

It was a forlorn deterrent in September 2002, when Sunderland capitulated 2-0 at St James’ Park and Peter Reid tore a strip from his team. It was described by Sir Bobby Robson, the Newcastle United manager at the time, as “the last resort” and dismissal was tapping on Reid’s shoulders. In the intervening three years, Sunderland have won three matches at this level, where the club are defined by their £ 40 million debt and ingrained disillusion.

In McCarthy’s case, there was little brinkmanship because while Sunderland’s position is desperate, his job is secure and there is more chance of Roy Keane bolstering Sunderland’s midfield than him resigning. And would anyone else eke greater commitment from players he recruited from Oxford United, Mansfield Town, Chester City and Stockport County when the pot is empty, when relegation beckons?

Yet when the final whistle pierced the drizzle at an emptying stadium, McCarthy did something remarkable. Beaten 1-0 by the team immediately above his, four points adrift of them, numbed by six consecutive league defeats, his chairman attacked by a supporter the day before, the Yorkshireman muttered “f*** this”, turned on his heels and stomped up the tunnel.

“That last 20 minutes was as poor as we have played — gutless and embarrassing,” McCarthy said. “I can only apologise to everyone. Ability is the only way to get out of it and if you can’t pass the ball 20 yards with either foot to another red-and-white shirt, you shouldn’t be playing in this league.

“I don’t question the players’ efforts, but I do question their ability. But then that’s my responsibility. I brought them to the club. I hung my hat on them and I still do because as a manager you have to have faith. If I leave anyone out, they knock on my door and say they want to play, but at the minute they don’t look like Premier League players and that is very, very tough.”

There was no disagreement. “I’m stood on the field, watching and cringing,” Jonathan Stead, the forward, said, yet words are words and scapegoats are not obvious. As McCarthy said: “It’s a quantum leap from the second division to the Premiership and we’re all suffering.” A deficit of quality ensures that they miss the injured Julio Arca, Stephen Elliott and George McCartney, but January “cannot bring instant change”.

The boardroom is a target, yet to what benefit? Sunderland have a plush ground, fine training facilities and the club’s Foundation impacts positively on Wearside life; if the financial position is parlous, the money was spent pursuing dreams. And there is no excuse for Bob Murray, the chairman, and his wife being covered in glass in a Newcastle restaurant on Friday night, when they were sharing a quiet meal with McCarthy.

While informed gossip regarding a purported takeover remains strong, all the club can do is roll with the punches. Liverpool arrive at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday. “We have to show more fight,” McCarthy said. “What we can’t do is let our heads go.”

Excluding Muzzy Izzet, Birmingham City were equally vapid, but the difference lay in their substitutes, with Jermaine Pennant and Walter Pandiani initiating Julian Gray’s 68th-minute goal, their first for nearly nine hours. It is their only victory since August. “It was 1993 when I last celebrated like that,” Steve Bruce, the manager, said, but Manchester United and the league title felt very distant.