SUNDERLAND midfielder Jeff Whitley is determined to transfer his international goalscoring exploits onto the club stage as his side prepare to face Gillingham this afternoon.

Whitley became the first Northern Ireland player to score from open play for more than three years when he fired a stinging half-volley past Wales goalkeeper Paul Jones this week.

The strike, which helped Lawrie Sanchez's side earn a creditable 2-2 draw in the Millennium Stadium, was Whitley's first goal of the season.

The combative midfielder has not scored in a Sunderland shirt since May's 1-1 draw with Crewe and, after only scoring twice in the whole of last season, he is hoping Wednesday night's success will kick off something of a scoring spree.

"I've spoken about my lack of goals before," said Whitley, whose penalty miss proved so crucial in last season's play-off semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace. "I know I need to get more goals into my game.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that, after scoring against Wales, I'm going to get another against Gillingham as well.

"A lot of the lads have congratulated me about the goal on Wednesday night and I couldn't really have picked a better stage to score on.

"I just remember a free-kick being tapped to James Quinn and getting in front of Gary Speed on the edge of the box.

"I heard the rest of lads shouting 'Shoot' when it opened up for me and luckily I hit it really well."

Whitley was not the only Sunderland player to have mislaid his shooting boots last season.

Julio Arca was the leading scorer outside of the club's strikers and, with the Argentinian spending a large chunk of the campaign at left back, John Oster's five goals made him the most prolific midfielder.

Things have hardly picked up this term with Carl Robinson's opener against Crewe the only goal to have come from Sunderland's misfiring midfield.

"Last year, I'm sure we would have got promoted if the majority of the midfield had chipped in with another four goals," admitted Whitley.

"There's a lot of pressure on the forwards when they're not scoring, but it's the team that's at fault at the end of the day.

"Even when the defence go up for corners, they've got to be looking to chip in with goals of their own as well.

"But, as a midfield, we know we need to start hitting the back of the net quickly."

Sunderland travel to Gillingham in dire need of three points following three successive away defeats but, with 12 of their players having spent the last week on international duty, the final quarter of the game will put their stamina levels to the test.

Whitley came up against team-mate John Oster in Wednesday night's titanic tussle and, while he was left physically and emotionally drained at the final whistle, the 29-year-old is confident he will have recovered sufficiently ahead of today's game.

"We have to be geared up for it," he said. "It's as simple as that. I know I'll be going into the game feeling fine.

"We've been playing two games a week for a while now anyway so it's not a big deal for us at all."

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