AFTER Wednesday night's Carling Cup win over Birmingham City, Rovers manager Mark Hughes finds himself with some tough decisions to make ahead of tomorrow's trip to Sunderland.

Several players, who had previously been on the outside looking in, seized the chance to impress against Birmingham, which leaves Hughes with one or two difficult dilemmas before he settles on his side for the game at the Stadium of Light.

Does he stick with Matt Derbyshire, who looked bright on Wednesday night, or recall Benni McCarthy, who has come under fire recently for a perceived lack of work rate?

Likewise, in midfield, the experimentation with a 4-2-3-1 formation proved a roaring success, as Rovers looked a lot more solid with Tugay and Aaron Mokoena playing as holding players in front of the back four.

I know we shouldn't get too carried away by a comprehensive victory over what was effectively Birmingham's reserves but, after the back to back defeats against Larissa and Portsmouth, it was important we returned to winning ways with a decent performance and, thankfully, that was exactly what we got.

There was a spark about Rovers going forward that we hadn't seen for several weeks and, on other night, we would have scored five or six.

But, as well as the team played, if I was Sparky then I'd still be looking to bring back McCarthy this weekend, even though he's not exactly flavour of the month with many of the fans at the moment.

There's no question Benni's remarks over the summer, about wanting to join a club in the Champions League, have undermined his relationship with certain fans.

The last thing supporters want to see is their star players touting themselves for moves elsewhere through the media, which is exactly what Benni did.

As a result, some have clearly taken the view that he no longer wants to be here, and that's their prerogative because they pay their money and they are entitled to their opinion.

But is Benni's languid style of play really any different now, compared to last year?

For me, Benni has never been a big chaser of lost causes; he prefers to loiter in and around the 18-yard box.

When the goals are flying in regularly, as they were for Benni for much of last season, people tend to forget the shortcomings.

But if you're firing blanks, people are not quite so quick to forgive you for failing to put in the hard yards.

For what it's worth, I think you've got to stick by natural goalscorers like Benni for as long as is feasibly possible.

He was the Premiership's second leading goalscorer last season, after all, and he's not suddenly become a bad player over night.

Let's hope the sight of young Matty coming into the team and scoring the other night will give Benni that little kick up the backside he perhaps needed.

If he doesn't respond positively over the next few weeks then that is the time to drop him.