Sunderland fans rage against Reid

Another supporter drenched Reid with water as he headed to the bench before a 1-1 draw against Royal Antwerp earlier in the week.

Such incredible scenes before the season has even started have increased the urgency on Reid to respond with a big-money signing to change the outlook of the club.

With season-ticket sales at their lowest since the club moved to the Stadium of Light five years ago, the pressure is also on chairman Bob Murray and the club's plc to back Reid in the transfer market. Robbie Fowler, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke have all been available during the last year, yet Reid, an admirer of all three strikers, was unable to enter the bidding because he knew he could not cope with their wage demands.

His hope is, with cash-strapped Chelsea willing to accept his £12million bid for Gudjohnsen, the striker's wage demands will not break the Sunderland bank.

Reid has switched his attention to Gudjohnsen after accepting defeat in his bid for Leeds striker Robbie Keane, although he will continue to monitor the Dubliner's progress at Elland Road. He is determined to buy an established Premiership forward after former France striker Lilian Laslandes' embarrassing failure at the Stadium of Light last season.

Gudjohnsen has emerged as Reid's No.1 target ahead of Derby's Malcolm Christie and Southampton's James Beattie.

Murray and the Sunderland board are remaining characteristically silent over their manager, but the players, at least, are continuing to back him.

Other players as well as Kilbane, whose gesture in Saturday's game was the result of two years of taunts from fans, remonstrated with supporters during the trip to Belgium, including Republic of Ireland midfielder Jason McAteer.

Captain Michael Gray pleaded for patience before the club headed for their final warm-up games in Spain, against Sevilla and Algeciras, this week.

Gray said: 'The fans will be travelling to Spain too, which is fantastic for them and great for us, but I would just like them to get behind us and the manager, too. I can tell you, the players in that dressing room are 100 per cent behind the manager.

'He is the man who has got us where we are at the moment, which is in the Premiership and in it for the fourth season in a row. I think things will come again. Maybe we spoilt people by doing so well, finishing seventh twice in consecutive seasons, but I think there is no reason why we will not be successful again.

'The fans travel with us because they want to see us win, and if they don't they are disappointed. But the only way to get through any difficult time, as we have shown at Sunderland in the past, is to stick together.

'The players at this club stick together and we need the fans to stick with us and the manager, too, because we are all after the same thing.'