O´Neill lines up final bid for Davies

Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill is ready to make a final attempt to sign out-of-favour Bolton striker Kevin Davies.

The former Aston Villa boss said he may try to sign the veteran centre-forward on Monday before the transfer window closes after Bolton counterpart Owen Coyle had disclosed that Sunderland had phoned about his player.

Fraizer Campbell may have made a fairytale comeback from a 17-month injury lay-off to keep Sunderland’s FA Cup hopes alive but O’Neill is still ready to follow up his interest in Davies which was triggered by an injury to Nicklas Bendtner.

“I did make an enquiry and Owen (Coyle) I think would want to try to keep him but wouldn’t stand in his way and I may well follow that up tomorrow,” O’Neill said after the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

“Obviously come Wednesday morning that is it and we have a couple of injuries to contend with and while I am absolutely delighted with Fraizer, and that helps enormously of course, I think we will maybe have a look.”

“Even if we are unable to do something we will still have a genuine look in the last two days just to bolster the squad if we could.”

O’Neill has fresh injury worries over former Middlesbrough midfielder Lee Cattermole who missed the tie with a hamstring injury and Wes Brown who went off in the second half with a knee problem.

Both players will have scans on Monday when their manager re-opens talks with Coyle over Davies.

O’Neill reserved special praise for Campbell who made a goalscoring return from two serious injuries making his first appearance since August 2010.

“I am really delighted for Fraizer and everyone else at the club is and it is hard not to be with the injury he sustained,” O’Neill said.

“He took his goal brilliantly with what was his first or second touch and he gave us extra energy that we seemed to lack in the first half. Fraizer always has a smile on his face and he has given everyone around the club a lift.”

“I am delighted we are still in the cup. We played very sloppily in the first half and Boro got a foothold in the game and they deserved to go in front but we showed more urgency in the second half and that was epitomised by Fraizer Campbell and we deserved in the end the draw, which was a fair result.”

“We started off slowly in the game, which was surprising considering it was a cup game, and an important match for us.”

“When they got in front, and they deserved to, we thought we had an equaliser but it was chalked off. I’ve not seen a replay of it.”

“But in the second half we got a bit of tempo in the game. Fraizer Campbell got us a big goal,

gave us a big lift and then we thought we might be able to get it, but it would have been hard luck on Middlesbrough and we both live to fight another day.”

The replay is scheduled for Tuesday, February 7.