STEVEN FLETCHER has been challenged to prove he deserves to stay at Sunderland following Sam Allardyce’s arrival at the Stadium of Light.

Fletcher is out of contract at the end of the season and an indifferent few years on Wearside has cast doubt surrounding his future.

But Allardyce, who had an interest during the striker’s time at Hibernian when he moved to Burnley, feels the 28-year-old has every chance of staying on the Sunderland pay-roll – provided he can score the goals to keep the Black Cats up.

Fletcher, after moving to the North-East for £12m three years ago, scored the third of Sunderland’s goals in last Sunday’s 3-0 win over Newcastle United, taking his tally for the season to three after a frustrating couple of years. Allardyce said: “Steve’s like every forward in the end, his hold up play is very important to you because you can build off that. That in itself allows you to keep hold of possession a lot better but ultimately in the end you are judged on the number of goals you score.

“The more and more goals he scores, the more people will say Steven Fletcher is back to his best. In his position it is one of the biggest challenges of his career because he is out of contract.

“When a player is out of contract and the club is in this position it is, I want to see a player like Steven go out to help us to get where we want to get. Then everyone gets what they want - a new contract - we are OK in the Premier League and we try to move forward from there. It should but his target.”

Allardyce was satisfied with the outcome against Newcastle last Sunday but feels there is still plenty of room for improvement in a squad still in relegation trouble just ten games in to the campaign.

Sunderland head for Everton on Sunday knowing they will have to make at least one change, with John O’Shea and Younes Kaboul both struggling with knocks sustained against the Magpies.

“We have Wes Brown and Seb Coates so we have centre halves available for selection if neither Younes nor John make it,” said Allardyce. “I don’t know if any of the injuries will make Sunday just yet because none of them have been back in training yet, so I will have a meeting with medicals staff later and go from there.

“We will wait as long as we can to see if we can get any of those back in to the squad.

“I enjoyed Sunday and I have enjoyed this week because it has got me off to the sort of start you would want after the disappointment of West Brom. It was a big, big game against Newcastle, it always is at whatever time of year, but the fact we are both in this position we were in - and we had the run of wins to continue against them – made it a bigger match for us. We have to continue to get results.”

But he knows Everton will be a difficult team to crack, even though Roberto Martinez’s side have only won one of their opening five games at Goodison Park.

Allardyce said: “They have had difficulties at home before. Roberto has had a few injury problems. He will be disappointed in that factor, but if you look at the stats at the start of the season about how many teams didn’t win at home it was staggering, a ridiculously low number in the first 17-20 games. I was following it as a pundit, but I haven’t followed it since.

“There seems a change of tactics across the Premier League. People talk about a high pressing game and now they talk about a counter-attacking game. There has been quite a shift in the way tactics are being played and that tactic seems to be paying dividends away from home for quite a few clubs, sitting in and playing counter attacking football, accepting less possession but exposing the spaces the opposing team leaves because the onus is to attack you because they are playing at home.”