Sunderland striker Darren Bent is confident the club's season can change for the better as quickly as it did for the worse.

The 15-goal striker heads into tonight's Barclays Premier League clash with Stoke at the Stadium of Light desperate for his potency to be rewarded in the hard currency of points.

Six of £10million Bent's first nine strikes for the club contributed towards league victories and helped to get the Black Cats off to a promising start.

But his last six have come since Sunderland last collected all three points with a 1-0 win over Arsenal on November 21.

In all, Bruce's men have won just once in their last 11 games in all competitions - and that against non-league Barrow in the FA Cup - but Bent is convinced home clashes with the Potters and Wigan at the weekend can revive their campaign.

He said: "These next two games are very important. There was a period not so long ago that if we had won one or two games, we would have been in the top four.

"It can change so quickly. We have let our standards slip and we have fallen off. We are ready to get back to that.

"We have got two massive games now and hopefully we can take full points from those two games.

"Fortunes can change so quickly. It has gone from good to bad, but it can easily go back to good again.

"We beat Arsenal and everyone was talking about Sunderland being this and what have you, but we haven't won a [league] game since."

Bent's early-season form justified Sunderland's investment in him and led to England recognition once again.

But while he is delighted with his own form and goal return, he admits he would be happier if his contribution started to count for more in terms of points.

He said: "The goals mean more if the team is winning, definitely.

"It would be nice if I was scoring goals and the team was winning because everybody would be talking about how well Sunderland are doing.

"We know we have got a top chance to get things going again tonight against Stoke, and I'm sure we can do that."