‘No excuses if we can’t beat Burton’

Aiden McGeady admits Sunderland won’t deserve to stay up if they don’t beat Burton Albion tomorrow.

Chris Coleman’s side could be relegated to League One this weekend if they fail to beat Nigel Clough’s side and Birmingham City or Bolton Wanderers better their result.

McGeady, who has forced his way back into the Sunderland side recently, knows Sunderland would have no excuses if they can’t beat their relegation rivals at home.

Sunderland are bottom, six points from safety, with Burton – who beat Derby County last weekend – a point and place above them.

“They had a really good result at the weekend, but, ultimately, if we don’t beat them, then we don’t deserve to stay up – that’s the way I look at it,” said McGeady.

“We know we have to win our remaining games to have a chance of staying up,” added McGeady. “‘Do or die’ has probably been said for every game we have had for the last three months.

“The only positive from the last five or six games is that we’ve actually been playing well.

“You look at the games where we’ve drawn – even the Sheffield Wednesday game where we lost – and we’ve played well in all these games and probably deserved to win them; Leeds, Norwich, Reading.

“Over the season, if we don’t concede those goals when we’re in the lead, I’d say we’d probably be right up there if we maintained our leads when we were winning games.

“But that’s in the past. There’s not much we can do to change it. The positive thing is we’ve been playing well.”