Sunderland 1 Blackburn 2: When managers summon up the courage to drop star players they quite often soften the blow by fibbing to reporters who are duly informed that the fans' favourite in question is slightly injured or a little unwell.

Happily Mark Hughes is too big a believer in meritocracy to play that sort of game and, when he was asked what was wrong with the absent Benni McCarthy, Blackburn's manager did not hesitate before telling the truth about the widely coveted South African striker.

"Benni's been left behind, doing extra work at our training ground," said Hughes.

"Benni hasn't been reaching the required standards so I had a talk to him and told him why he would be staying behind. He understands he needs to do better. He's working one-to-one on a range of things and that will continue next week."

Given that Jason Roberts, a natural understudy for the popular, and previously prolific McCarthy, was injured and that Hughes therefore needed to adapt his formation to ensure Roque Santa Cruz, Blackburn's lone striker, received service, this was a brave decision by the manager - fully vindicated when McCarthy turned out to be barely missed as the excellent David Bentley prospered in a new role, floating just behind Santa Cruz.

When two early second-half errors from Danny Higginbotham prefaced volleyed goals from first Bentley and then Santa Cruz, Roy Keane's side were undone, and it was all but academic when their best player, Grant Leadbitter, reduced the deficit in the 89th minute.

"Sunderland struggled with our movement, we got people between the lines and it was difficult for Roy's team to get a foothold," said Hughes who felt sufficiently confident to start with the recently under-achieving Morten Gamst Pedersen and Robbie Savage on the bench.

Mindful of such meritocratic management, Bentley was very much on-message afterwards.

"I'll play wherever the gaffer wants," said the right-winger turned second striker who was, after all, hyped as the "new Dennis Bergkamp" in his Arsenal days.

"Just look at the ability on our bench today and Benni wasn't even here."

Such strength in depth is testimony to Hughes's transfer-market acumen, as demonstrated by the way Christopher Samba, a €575,000 January buy from Hertha Berlin, had dominated Sunderland's €8.6 million Kenwyne Jones.

Their contrasting recruitment policies represent probably the biggest difference between Hughes and his former Manchester United colleague, Keane.

While both endeavour to get their players passing sweetly and conduct their media relations with a refreshing absence of paranoia, Sunderland's manager still looks a comparative novice as a wheeler and dealer.

Certainly little of the €52 million Keane invested this summer appears to have been spent on signings as canny as Blackburn's Samba, Santa Cruz, Andre Ooijer and, above all, Bentley, whose career was rescued by Hughes two years ago after he had lost his way at Arsenal.

"I'm getting more boos than Robbie Savage," joked the newly-toughened Bentley after being jeered by Sunderland fans deriding his decision to give the England Under-21s a bodyswerve this summer. "But, to be honest, I quite enjoy it. "

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