HOWARD WILKINSON reckons Kevin Phillips is on the verge of a goal glut that will haul Sunderland out of the relegation mire.

Wilkinson has been impressed by Phillips' workrate in training and matches, even though the striker has failed to produce his best scoring form.

Phillips has hit the target just five times in 21 appearances during a season that started slowly as he recovered from a hernia injury.

But after the 29-year-old capped a fine all-round performance at Blackburn Rovers with a goal, the Sunderland manager believes his premier striker is close to his best.

"Kevin played very well and I'd have thought he would have had a goal tally that would make him a happy chappy had he been in the Blackburn team," said Wilkinson.

"Unfortunately we've struggled to score this season. But I feel we've started to look more like scoring of late. We've made more chances, controlled the ball better and played better.

"Our service to Kevin was better at Blackburn. We played well, particularly when we had the ball.

"Kevin's trained very hard and worked very hard; his standards in training are very high.

"He gets down when he's not scoring, which is only natural because he's driven by scoring. But he never lets that affect the way he goes about his work."

Michael Proctor thanked Phillips for helping him through the 3-3 draw at Blackburn and gave his strike partner a glowing reference.

Proctor said: "I'm pleased to have played alongside Kevin. He's a top-drawer player and he kept guiding me through the game."

Wilkinson claimed Sunderland played without fear on Saturday and his view was backed up by Kevin Kilbane.

The midfielder said: "We've worked very hard on one or two things and it was our best attacking performance of the season.

"It's about believing in ourselves. We believed we could pass the ball, and we passed it as well as we have all season. We could have scored six goals."

Kilbane heads into this week's home Premiership double header confident that Sunderland can take six points from their games with Southampton and Charlton.

The Black Cats are two points from safety but they could move out of the bottom three with victory against Southampton tomorrow.

Kilbane said: "We believe we can beat Southampton. Our next two home games are very winnable.

"We've played well against a top ten side in Blackburn, and now we have to take that performance into the League. Scoring three goals away from home gives us a massive boost, and hopefully we can give our home fans a few goals and a great performance."

* Sunderland were last night hopeful that Julio Arca would be fit for tomorrow's game after the ankle injury he suffered at Blackburn turned out not to be as serious as first feared.

Read more about Sunderland here.