THIS season might already be the most successful of Kevin Kyle's life - but the Sunderland striker is hoping to have even more cause for celebration before it ends.

Tomorrow night's play-off semi-final opener with Crystal Palace will be Kyle's 52nd domestic appearance of a long and arduous campaign that could yet end with the Black Cats leaping straight back into the Premiership.

Kyle's playing record stands in marked contrast to last season, when the Scotland international started just nine league games as Sunderland tumbled out of the top flight.

Mick McCarthy has rotated his striking resources in the second half of the season but, while Marcus Stewart, Darren Byfield and Tommy Smith have all been forced to endure prolonged spells on the sidelines, Kyle has been the one fixture in the forward ranks.

The 22-year-old has more than justified McCarthy's faith with a series of committed displays that have helped to fire Sunderland into the end-of-season shoot-out.

Kyle is happy with the way things have gone over the last nine months and, while he admits he would like to have scored more than the 14 goals that have come his way, he knows his final tally will be forgotten if he can make a telling contribution over the next two-and-a-half weeks.

"I would say that it's been my best season ever because it's been the only one in which I've started games regularly," said the Stranraer-born striker.

"I started off the season not really knowing what to expect because I'd only played a handful of Premiership games last year.

"As the season's gone on I think I've improved and I've started to get more and more plaudits from other managers.

"I've enjoyed it but, at the back of my mind, I know that I could maybe have scored a lot more goals. But that's going to come with experience.

"I definitely feel there are goals in me. Even when I'm going through a barren spell, I still feel like I can score a goal in every game I play. The team is creating so many chances in every game that there are goals there.

"With us getting to the play-offs, my ambition this season is to score the winner at Cardiff. If I do that I don't think anybody will argue about how many goals I've scored."

Thoughts of Cardiff remain somewhat premature as, before Sunderland can turn their attention to the play-off final, they must first see off a Crystal Palace side that beat them 3-0 at Selhurst Park just three weeks ago.

That defeat finally ended any lingering hopes Sunderland had of automatic promotion, but the game turned on the 20th-minute dismissal of Estonian goalkeeper Mart Poom.

Kyle felt Sunderland had been holding their own up to that point and, provided they can keep 11 men on the pitch tomorrow, he expects things to be a lot tighter this time around.

"I thought we did well in the first 20 minutes of that game," said the imposing frontman, who is expected to start alongside Stewart tomorrow night.

"They didn't really cause us any problems until Poomy got sent off. We went a goal down straight after that and it's difficult to claw it back with ten men.

"It ended up being 3-0, but this time around we'll have 11 men and, hopefully, we can come back with a result.

"I'm sure the lads are confident we can do that. We've beaten the other three teams in the play-offs at least once and we know we can beat them all again.

"If we can get something at Palace then we'll be in great shape to come back to our stadium on Monday."

The away goal rule does not apply in the play-offs, so any kind of a draw at Selhurst Park would leave Sunderland firmly in the driving seat for next week's return leg at the Stadium of Light.

Many teams would opt to approach the game in a defensive light, but Kyle is urging the Black Cats not to neglect their attacking instincts tomorrow night.

"Somebody said to me that we might be going down there and playing one up front to get a draw," he said. "But I'm sure the manager will be going down there trying to win the game. That's what the players will be doing as well - I'll be going to Palace looking to make it as comfortable as possible at the Stadium of Light.

Read more about Sunderland here.