Darren Bent: I’ll be taking penalties from now

Sep 29 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

“He said he fancied and I’d already had one, so I just said ‘Have it’.

“I think that if he hadn’t have scored the first from the spot, maybe he wouldn’t have scored his second goal, which was really important.

“I was delighted to get two and happy that Kenwyne got two as well.

“But the gaffer had a go at me afterwards and when I was thinking about it, maybe I shouldn’t have done it. If he hadn’t scored I suppose the gaffer wouldn’t have been happy.

“Kenwyne being Kenwyne, though, I knew that he was going to score.”

And Bent added: “In my defence it shows that team spirit is great here.

“It’s about building bridges with your new team-mates and hopefully I’m doing that – we’ve done well so far this season and we want to get better.”

Bent’s superb form has prompted further talk of an England call-up, and the former Spurs man insists that he still believes he can hold his own in the international arena.

“I can’t do much more than I’m doing at the moment,” he said.

“Hopefully the England manager is watching but if he’s not I won’t let my head drop, I’ll keep knocking them in for Sunderland.

“We’ve got two really difficult games coming up. At the same time we’re very confident because we’ve had a good start to the season.

“I definitely still believe I’m an England player. I’ve not had the best of luck with England. The last time I played against Germany I went round the keeper and slipped over – things like that define your England career.

“If that goes in I could be in the next four or five squads, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“You can’t really be judged on 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there. If I get a regular run in the team and play some games in the run-up to the World Cup, I’d back myself every day of the week to score goals for my country and play well.

“The moment I stop scoring goals is the moment people start saying I don’t deserve to be there.”

:: TEENAGE striker Ryan Noble came off the bench to grab a late winner as Sunderland Reserves beat Scunthorpe 2-1 yesterday in the Totesport.Com Central League Cup.

Liam Hubbock gave a young Black Cats team the lead, but Adam Boyes equalised for the home side.