 Chris Brown knows he has a fight on his hands to win a regular place in Sunderland's starting line-up and is prepared to upset one of his boyhood heroes to get it. Competition for places among the Black Cats strikers increased further this week when deadline-day signing Brian Deane was added to a group which already included Brown, Michael Bridges and first-choice pair Marcus Stewart and Stephen Elliott. Despite his respect for his rivals, Brown is not content to sit on the substitutes' bench. "The manager (Mick McCarthy) says I have more of an impact as a substitute but I don't want to be known as a super-sub, I want to get in the team like everyone else," he insisted. "I've got to believe I can. Marcus Stewart and Stephen Elliott have been class so I know it'll be difficult but I think I can do it. "You've just got to try and do well and hope that's enough and if you start the game you've got to take your chance" The Durham-born forward did his chances no harm in Sunderland's last game, the 1-0 win over Coventry City. Having scored the goal which put his side top of the Championship for only the second time this season, Brown is hoping he has improved his chances of forcing his way into McCarthy's thinking for the next game, away to Queen's Park Rangers. "I think I did well against Coventry and I'm just looking forward to the QPR game now," he said. Brown, though, is quick to point out he does not mind who puts the ball in the net so long as it gets the team into the Premier League. "There's no real competition among the strikers over who gets the goals," he said. "We've got to work hard as individuals and you just try to get on with your own job." The better he does his job, the more disappointed he will leave rival Bridges, who he used to watch as a boy. "I used to go and stand at the Roker End and watch Mickey Bridges and some of the older lads, and then at the Stadium of Light when we moved there," he said. "When I knew he was signing I was looking forward to meeting him, although he was only a young lad himself." When Elliott was injured recently it was Bridges, rather than Brown, who was asked to deputise, despite the fact the 20-year-old had been McCarthy's more regular choice from the bench. Brown, however, had no complaints. "I don't take my place for granted," he said. "I think it's more frustrating being out of the team when you're doing well but I was below par in the previous games and the manager just gave me a kick up the backside." Even so, the club clearly sees the son of former frontman Alan Brown as an important part of its future and recently rewarded the Durham-born striker with a two-year contract extension. Although the uncertainty of playing for a new deal has brought the best out of Stewart in particular, Brown - clearly one of his own harshest critics - thinks he will benefit from resolving the matter. "I go through times when I'm not feeling 100pc - not physically, but in terms of sharpness in front of goal," he said. | 
