Kevin Phillips admits he holds fears about Charlie Wyke's lack of goals this season.
But the former Sunderland forward believes this weekend's visit of Bristol Rovers offers the perfect opportunity for Wyke to get among the goals.
Phillips, who won the Premier League's Golden Boot and the European Golden Shoe while on Wearside, is a fan of Wyke and has previously described him as a 'handful' at League One level.
But the 27-year-old is without a goal in his last four matches and has only scored on five occasions this term in all competitions.
And while Phillips isn't necessarily concerned at the moment about Wyke's lack of goals, he feels it could become a problem for Sunderland in their hunt for promotion further down the line.
“You want your strikers scoring goals regularly,” Phillips told Football Insider.
“He has got [Kyle] Lafferty who can come in and work alongside him and with his experience, you would expect him to get goals before now and the end of the season.
“There is always going to be a spell at a club where your main striker is going to go three, four, five games without a goal. You have to hope one of your centre-halves gets one, a midfielder chips in with a couple.
“At the moment I am not worried because we are getting away with it but you do not want him to be having this conversation in four weeks’ time.
"They are at home to Bristol Rovers this weekend so you would like to think he has an opportunity to get a goal there.”
