BY DECEMBER, Chris Brown will have gone to Hull and back in search of Premiership football, and last night Sunderland's forgotten striker insisted he was still confident of making his mark on the top-flight.

While the rest of his Black Cats team-mates have been gradually finding their feet following last season's promotion, Brown has found himself back in the Championship.

A three-month loan spell at Hull's KC Stadium was supposed to further his football education and give him the chance to show Mick McCarthy what he was missing.

Instead, Brown's first seven games with the Tigers have failed to bring a goal, with Hull's recent struggles standing in marked contrast to Sunderland's steady improvement.

Despite making 40 appearances as the Wearsiders were promoted last season, Brown was squeezed out by the arrival of Jon Stead, Anthony Le Tallec and Andy Gray.

But, while his recent barren run has hardly helped his prospects, the boyhood Black Cats fan remains hopeful of a triumphant return to the Stadium of Light.

"My future is at Sunderland," maintained Brown, who made a substitute appearance at Liverpool in August before being farmed out to East Yorkshire. "I hope it is, as I'm a Sunderland lad and hopefully I'll be there for the long term.

"I've enjoyed it at Hull, but I'm not going to accept that I'm not going to get in at Sunderland.

"My aim is to get in there. That's the reason I came to Hull, to play games and impress the manager.

"Sunderland send scouts down to most games and hopefully someone is watching and I do impress. There's some time yet before any of that is decided, so I suppose we'll have to wait and see. If I'm not playing at Sunderland, though, I'd rather stay at Hull."

The packed Championship fixture list has inevitably restricted Brown's ability to watch the Black Cats in action, but the 20-year-old has still been keeping a close eye on his permanent employers' progress.

He was at the Riverside to see last month's 2-0 win over Middlesbrough and travelled to the Stadium of Light to watch the recent 1-1 draw with West Ham - games that convinced him of Sunderland's ability to compete at the highest level.

"The performances have been good all season," he said. "But teams have punished us for not finishing chances or being sloppy at the back.

"We should have had nine points from the last three games before Saturday's game with Manchester United.

"It was five in the end but we have to take confidence from the fact we've played some good teams and we could have done much better."

Things could also have gone much better personally, with Brown's arrival at Hull co-inciding with a run of three successive defeats for Peter Taylor's side.

His lack of goals remains a concern and, despite scoring seven times for Sunderland last season, the youngster admits that his confidence has taken a bit of a blow.

"I just need a couple of goals now to get my confidence back up," said Brown. "That's my main aim at the moment.

"It's good to be playing regularly though. That's been the good thing. It does pray on your mind but you try not to worry about it.

"It happens to the best in the world, but you have to believe you are going to score every time you go out there. That's what I'll continue to do."

* Brian Kerr is expected to learn his fate today when the Football Association of Ireland meet to discuss the Republic of Ireland's failure to reach the World Cup finals.

The ten-man Board of Management within the FAI have brought forward their meeting by 24 hours, with the assumption being Kerr will not be handed a new contract as manager.

Speculation is mounting regarding a replacement for Kerr, with Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Robson, Martin O'Neill, David O'Leary and Kenny Dalglish all being linked.

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