STEWART DOWNING was last night tipped to flourish in an England shirt following his scintillating start to life at Sunderland.

And new Black Cats teammate Marcus Stewart is convinced the tricky young winger could eventually be the solution to the national team's problematic left side.

Downing, on a month's loan from North-East neighbours Middlesbrough, has starred in both his games for Sunderland so far.

The 19-year-old grabbed his side's first and played a part in both other goals in a 3-1 win at Gillingham on Tuesday - just three days after impressing on his debut at West Brom.

Now, despite his lack of appearances in senior football, Stewart has already labelled the Teesside-born wide-man as a star of the future on the international stage.

"He's a fantastic prospect for English football, not just for us," said Stewart. "There aren't many natural left-sided players around at the moment and when someone with his pace and ability comes along it is rare.

"He is good with both feet and that could be good news for England. He has represented his country at Under-19 level and every level before that. He will be hoping to progress up into the Under-21 squad and beyond.

"There is no reason why he cannot go on to play at senior level for England because we don't have any naturally left-sided players out there."

There are already calls for Downing to extend his stay on Wearside beyond the initial month.

And, while manager Mick McCarthy has indicated any talks of a longer deal are 'premature', Stewart has urged his boss to do everything he can to keep the young gun at Sunderland.

Boro boss Steve McClaren is likely to resist any attempts by Sunderland to capture the player permanently.

But with Dutch winger Bolo Zenden on loan at the Riverside until the end of the campaign there is every chance McClaren will allow Downing to stay at Sunderland on a similar deal.

"I'd love him to stay at Sunderland for more than a month," said Stewart.

"As a striker, you want to feed off crosses into the box and Stewart provides that.

"He created plenty of chances for the team at Gillingham, including myself, and he created the second goal for John Oster as well as scoring the first himself."

Stewart hit Sunderland's third and final goal at the Priestfield Stadium, ending his own personal goal drought which had seen him grab just one goal in 11 games prior to Tuesday night.

The former Ipswich Town man should have found the net sooner, when he turned a whizzing Downing cross against the post from inside the six-yard area.

Stewart, who has six to his name this season, said: "It was the worst miss of my career. You get chances like that, two yards, and sometimes the keeper manages to get across and save it, but to not even hit the target is just not good enough. I was distraught that I didn't score and didn't even make the keeper make a save.

"Thankfully Stewart Downing got me out of a mess and I got one in the end as well.

"Three points were the most important thing, but personally it was a bonus to get a goal as well.

"There has been a lot of pressure on myself and Kevin Kyle recently but hopefully I've managed to relieve that a bit now. Kevin was unlucky at Gillingham, but I'm sure a goal is coming his way soon."

Sunderland go into Saturday's home clash with Coventry knowing victory could take them to the top of Division One.

The clash with the Sky Blues will bring to an end a run of three consecutive away fixtures in which they picked up four points from a possible nine.

And Stewart is pleased with the determination the squad is showing.

He said: "In the end we won comfortably and I think we've looked like doing that in all three of our recent away matches. We've looked like scoring goals against West Brom and Norwich and didn't do it.

"All season we have looked as though we're going to score loads of goals away from home and thankfully, against Gillingham, we've got three and could have had even more.

"We still went one goal down but we showed the character to come back and win comfortably in the end."

* Moroccan international Dries Boussatta has agreed to sign for Sheffield United until the end of the season.

Former Ajax winger Boussatta, 30, is seen as ideal cover for Peter Ndlovu, who will be on African Nations Cup duty with Zimbabwe for a month in the new year.

''Boussatta's had a medical,'' said manager Neil Warnock, ''and he has agreed to sign for us until the end of the season.''

''He has a lot of quality and creates things, which is what we want. He's got a good touch, a good brain and he speaks good English as well.''

* Rotherham United have rubbished reports linking Ronnie Moore with the vacant manager's job at Crystal Palace.

Moore's name has been touted since the Eagles parted company with Steve Kember this week, but the Millers insist this is nothing new.

A club spokesman said: ''Every job that comes up, Ronnie is the favourite for it. The lads have started ribbing him about it because it happens so often.

''He told me when the story first appeared that there is absolutely no chance of him going."