MICK McCarthy last night hailed Stephen Elliott's return to spectacular goalscoring form - but is hoping to see a few more tap-ins from the Republic of Ireland striker.

Elliott has experienced fluctuating fortunes in his first full season as a striker in the Premiership and it initially looked as if he was struggling to cope with the step up in class.

Many fans believed his omission from Sunderland's opening two fixtures meant the manager felt the same way.

Certainly McCarthy's decision to employ his frontman on the right of a five-man midfielded when he did eventually hand Elliott a start hardly allayed the fans' fears.

But suddenly the striker has rediscovered last season's Championship form after a spell of five consecutive games up front, culminating in two spectacular strikes in consecutive games, against Manchester United and fierce rivals Newcastle in last week's Tyne-Wear derby.

McCarthy admitted his £125,000 signing from Manchester City had not been firing on all cylinders but insisted he always felt confident he could reproduce the form which brought him 15 Championship goals last season.

"The next challenge for Stephen Elliott is to get a side-footer inside the six-yard box," said the Sunderland boss ahead of Portsmouth's visit to Wearside this afternoon.

"You will not get one of those special goals every game, although he has scored a couple recently.

"He needs to get a scrappy one, a close-range one, a little header, one inside the six-yard box. But his recent performances have been fantastic."

"He was finding his feet at the start of the season like everyone else.

"We always knew that the potential he showed last season in the Championship would be taken on to the Premier League. He has done that and he has got better and better.

"His performance was excellent against Newcastle."

Although Elliott has never shirked his responsibilities and, as McCarthy would say, 'put a shift in', he was displaying initial signs of hesitancy in front of goal due to a lack of confidence.

But his curling left-foot strike against Sir Alex Ferguson's side at the Stadium of Light two weeks ago seems to have cured his initial reluctance to take responsibility in front of goal. That and a half-time rollicking from the boss for passing when he had a chance to score.

McCarthy added: "I was going to say that he has never been short of confidence but I had a pop at him at half-time in the Manchester United game for not hitting the ball with his right foot.

"Last season he wouldn't have tried to pass it, he would have rattled it in. He went on to score in that game and he has carried it on."

Sunderland face Portsmouth today lying bottom but one in the Premier League, with Pompey just two points and two places above them. Portsmouth's only league win this term was at Everton in September.

The Black Cats' boss confessed for the first time this season that his side are fighting for the Premiership lives and he is desperate for a win.

He said: "We're all looking for points for exactly the same reason: we all want to stay in the Premier League.

"We have 28 games to go. We need 11 wins from them, it might be 12 now. Let's hope we can start with one this weekend.

"I don't think the amount of points needed to stay in the Premier League is high. It seems to have been getting lower over recent seasons.

"But I'm not going to get involved in talking about a relegation scrap just yet. But the pair of us are looking for wins, without question.

"I have already said that 28 draws won't keep us up. We need to win games and Portsmouth will feel just the same.

"We have some huge home games coming up. Portsmouth, Birmingham, Aston Villa and ourselves are all in the bottom half of the table."

Read more about Sunderland here.