NEVER one to shy away from a challenge, Sunderland's Kevin Kyle issued a warning to defenders up and down the country last night: 'Don't make me angry.'

Those who do rub the 6ft 4in gentle giant up the wrong way may not see him ripping off his shirt and turning green - as the Incredible Hulk most famously did - but he insists it will almost certainly make him play better.

The towering Scotland striker is expecting a tough time at Portman Road this afternoon when Sunderland take on Ipswich Town and he would not have it any other way.

In late September, the last time the two sides met, Town boss Joe Royle claimed Kyle ought to have been red-carded for a 'succession of fouls, late tackles, elbows and landing on people'.

But the Black Cats star, who claims he is not a dirty player, says his Braveheart attitude becomes more apparent the more he is fouled by opposing players.

Kyle, once booked by his father during his schoolboy days, had the last laugh against Ipswich the last time out when he headed in a late winner. And he is hoping the Tractor Boys' centre-backs antagonise him into a battle on the field this afternoon, because he is convinced that will help to bring out the best in him.

"Last Saturday at Millwall was a physical game but I just couldn't get into it really because I think I need to be kicked hard first or upset about something," said Kyle.

"There wasn't anything malicious done on me at Millwall and I didn't do anything malicious on anybody else, it was just a case of Dennis Wise on everybody else but me.

"Hopefully this week I will be lifted ten or 15 feet in the air early on and I will be up for the game.

"Sometimes it just depends on how the game pans out. I'm the big 6ft 4in centre-forward and everyone expects me to get stuck in.

"I might sound strange saying these things but it does get you going, even in training, when you are on the wrong end of a bad challenge. If I get annoyed then I am better.

"There are other things that get me going as well. I remember coming on against Wimbledon when it was 1-1. I was annoyed that it was 1-1 and I remember getting a flick on, the next thing I knew it was 2-1."

The FA Cup fourth round tie in East Anglia offers Sunderland a break from their promotion push in Division One, with Kyle, likely to partner Tommy Smith in attack.

Former Ipswich star Marcus Stewart is suspended, and Kyle will be more than happy to repeat his heroics of last September against Royle's men.

And the 22-year-old, with nine goals to his name this season, would love nothing more than to fire Sunderland into round five of the competition.

"Against Ipswich last year one of their players flipped me over and I landed on my neck early on. I was enraged by that so my aggression went up by about ten notches," said Kyle. "I think I put in a couple of daft tackles and I got booked for kicking a ball away. I was annoyed that night.

"What I was more upset about than anything else was I was getting fouled and the referee was doing nothing about it, that got me more determined.

"But hopefully there will be a repeat of that display because I enjoyed scoring the winner up at the Stadium of Light. It was 2-2 for a long, long time and then I have popped up with the winner. It was a good win because they are a tough team."

Ipswich sit just a point and a place below Sunderland in the Division One table and a victory will help to pay another chunk of the players' wages which were deferred back in August.

As well as a lucrative promotion bonus, a cut of the proceeds from a Cup run - already helped by the win over North-East neighbours Hartlepool - will be injected into the players' pay packets at some stage.

But Kyle insists the Sunderland squad are not thinking about money and they are focused on trying to give the club's supporters something else to cheer about.

"It will be good for the club if we can get into the next round," he said. "When the wage deferral thing came around in August we all knew we would get it back. So everybody just got on with the job in hand.

"We are not playing games in the Cup to get our money back. We want to win games because we want to win games - that and for the sake of the Sunderland fans."

Meanwhile, influential centre-back Gary Breen has failed to recover in time to play some part in today's clash.

Breen has been sidelined with knee ligament damage since early November and he restarted training with the rest of the squad this week.

But he is not fit enough to make a comeback today and manager Mick McCarthy is more than happy to stick with Phil Babb and Joachim Bjorklund at the heart of the defence.

Loan signing Kevin Cooper is unavailable after Wolves refused to allow him to play in the Cup, but Julio Arca returns after his one-match suspension.

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