Cats goal in good hands - Marton.

MARTON Fulop will use his extended run in the Sunderland side to prove Steve Bruce doesn't need to strengthen his goalkeeping department.

Signing a new keeper in the January transfer window was not a high priority for the Black Cats boss, but Craig Gordon's badly broken arm has forced him into a rethink.

Sunderland have previously been linked with England goalkeeper David James but Fulop - who will return to the side for the visit of Arsenal on Saturday - insists that Bruce does not need to spend the market to cover for Gordon.

Fulop has the perfect opportunity to back up his words with actions over the next three months and is confidently predicting better performances, now that he has recovered from the heel injury that affected his start to the season.

Indeed, Fulop believes that Bruce is still undecided about who his first-choice goalkeeper is, and intends to put the issue beyond doubt over the next few weeks.

"I don't think the manager has decided yet who his number one is," he said. "The more games you get the more chances you get to impress, and I hope we get a good result against Arsenal now and I can play my part.

"I definitely don't think the manager needs to bring in a new goalkeeper. Sunderland has three good goalkeepers - I include Trevor Carson as well. Craig is Scotland's number one and a very good goalkeeper, and I am an international as well.

"But that is what the manager is paid to do - make decisions like that, sign and sell players. All three of us want to prove to him that there is no need to sign another goalkeeper." Two months out of the team has been torture for Fulop, who admits he grows restless when he's not playing first-team football. Thanks to Gordon's injury woes, that hasn't been for long over the last couple of seasons - but every run out of the first XI is difficult for the Hungary goalkeeper to stomach. "It's not nice. You're here to play," he said. "As a foreign player playing here you miss your family but if you're playing it doesn't hurt quite so much. "But in football, you should be looking to play. I have never been someone who is willing to sit on the bench and pick up my wage. "That would be easy money but I've always wanted to work hard and to prove to my family, my friends and my team-mates that I'm a good goalkeeper.

"I think in the long-term, that attitude brings you rewards. You will get what you deserve. It also means that I'm in a good condition to play now." Sunderland should at least be assured that Fulop is now over the heel injury that troubled him in the opening weeks of the season. He played with the aid of painkilling injections but admits his desperation to help Sunderland out - Gordon was injured for the first month of the campaign - may have aggravated the injury. He revealed: "It was the last preseason game and I did my heel. It was a bad injury, it was sore walking and for the first three games I played with injections. "You can't do that forever and there was a time to say 'I need a rest'. It took five or six weeks to heal properly and in that time Craig came in and did fine. "It was no question of the boss changing a winning team and a keeper playing well. Injuries are a different question and now I hope I can step in and do what I did last season - play well.

"The injections take away a bit of the pain but the injury and the infection is still there - or maybe getting worse. So I think that we took the right decision to risk it when we did." Cats goal in good hands - Marton NEMANJA Vidic insists Sir Alex Ferguson's two-game touchline ban will not make any difference to Manchester United. Ferguson's ban for his comments about referee Alan Wiley starts on Saturday when Everton visit Old Trafford - bad timing for the defending champions who have slipped to third place, five points behind leaders Chelsea. But Serbian defender Vidic insists that the players will be unaffected by their manager's absence from the dug-out. Vidic said: "I don't think there will be a big difference. He sees everything and he will still have contact with the second coach [Mike Phelan]. "We know what is waiting for us and what he expects of us."