KEVIN PHILLIPS insists he can hit it off with new Sunderland strike partner Marcus Stewart.

Phillips, back after a six-week lay-off following a hernia operation, linked up with Stewart for the first time in last Saturday's damaging 1-0 home defeat by West Ham.

Howard Wilkinson, in his first game as Sunderland manager, plumped for Stewart rather than £8.2m club record buy Tore Andre Flo, who wasn't even on the bench.

Many feel that a Phillips-Flo combo is still the most likely long-term option for Wilkinson as he looks to lift the Black Cats out of the Premiership relegation zone.

But Phillips dismisses the notion that he and Stewart, who arrived on the same day as Flo in August in a deadline-beating £1.8m move from First Division Ipswich, are too alike in style to form an effective pairing.

"I don't think we're too similar,'' said Phillips, Sunderland's record post-war goalscorer. "I think we can be a good partnership.

"Marcus is a good player, very clever with his movement and how he uses the ball, and he's scored goals in the Premiership, as I have.

"It's just we have to try to gel quickly because, in our position in the league, we need to get goals and points.

"We're at the wrong end of the table to be able to give ourselves four or five games to get it right.''

Neither Phillips nor Stewart have managed a top-flight goal so far this season.

But Phillips added: "There were bits on Saturday when it started to work, but it just wasn't to be. It's one of those things where we have to keep working on it on the training pitch to help it come good."

Defender Phil Babb maintains Sunderland just need a change of luck.

He said: "The West Ham match was the same story as the Everton game earlier in the season - we should never have lost.

"We went so close to scoring and we couldn't have done much more in the second half.

"Things don't seem to be going for us at the moment but we'll keep working until they do.

"There was plenty of effort and in the second half the crowd got behind us and we built up some momentum. It was like the old Roker Roar at times.''

Meanwhile, winger Thomas Butler is facing a month or more on the sidelines after sustaining a hamstring injury in the Reserves' 3-1 win at Middlesbrough on Monday night.

* Sunderland academy players Stephen Capper, Mark Rossiter and Sean Thornton have been named in the Republic of Ireland Under-20 squad for friendlies against Slovakia and the Czech Republic on November 4 and 6.

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