SUNDERLAND’S search for a new striker continues, but as he settles in to his new surrounds on Wearside, Bradley Dack is confident he can provide at least some of the solutions to the club’s goalscoring issues.

With the Black Cats’ recruitment team having been unable to get a new forward through the door this week, and Ross Stewart still a month-and-a-half away from a return to action, Portuguese teenager Hemir remains the only centre-forward option ahead of this afternoon’s game at Preston.

Tony Mowbray can continue to play fellow summer signing Jobe Bellingham just behind Hemir, but if he wants to shake things up a bit, the Sunderland boss could opt to hand a first start to Dack, who was a second-half substitute in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup defeat to Crewe.

The 29-year-old remains a little bit short of full match fitness, but his creative powers remain as potent as ever, as illustrated by the series of second-half passes that threatened to unpick the Crewe defence in midweek. Dack has made a career out of creating and scoring goals – and is confident he can make a positive impact with Sunderland.

“I think that’s what I was brought into the club to try and help with,” said the forward, who spent six years with Blackburn before moving to the Stadium of Light this summer. “It’s a strength of my game to find the goal and create.

“Obviously, I still need to get a little bit fitter, and the off-the-ball stuff can still use work. But I’m here to try and help at the top end of the pitch, and hopefully I can do that.”

Dack’s switch to Sunderland has seen him reunited with Mowbray, the manager who did so much to develop his career during his time at Ewood Park.

Having broken through at Gillingham, Dack was not necessarily the most obvious of signings when Blackburn spent £750,000 to take him to Lancashire in the summer of 2017.

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He was a key figure in Rovers’ promotion back to the Championship though, and proved a massive success in the North-West, scoring 57 goals in 173 senior appearances in a Blackburn shirt.

He was always one of Mowbray’s favourites, with his blend of creativity, vision and impeccable technique making him an ideal fit for the Sunderland head coach’s preferred style of play.

Mowbray tried to sign Dack in January, only for his wages as a Blackburn player to make it impossible to be able to pull off a deal.

The situation changed this summer, when Dack was not offered a new contract with Rovers and therefore available as a free agent, and the London-born forward is determined to repay the faith that has been shown in him.

“I’ve known the manager for a long time,” he said. “We have a good relationship and it’s nice to have someone you know has a lot of belief in you as a football player.

“It’s not something I see as pressure or expectation. I have a belief in my ability that I’ll do things well for this club – create goals, score goals, that’s my main job. But it’s obviously nice when the manager has that belief in you.”

While he spent the summer training without a club, Dack admits he is behind his new team-mates in terms of his fitness levels. That should change relatively quickly, with the summer recruit already feeling the benefits of a couple of weeks of hard work at the Academy of Light.

“You can do as much running and stuff as you want, but it doesn’t replicate a training week,” he said. “The last two weeks have been really good for me.

“I feel good, I feel fit, and it was nice to get 55 minutes or so (against Crewe). I felt pretty good in the last ten or 15 minutes so it’s a foundation to build on, and hopefully I can do that.”