By Micah Richards Manchester City and England defender

After all his problems, I was delighted to see Stephen Ireland score Manchester City's winner against Sunderland on Monday.

But it was quite disappointing to hear that people wanted him to be fined for his celebration in his Superman pants.

You have to be so careful nowadays with how you celebrate because it seems that the fun element when celebrating goals is disappearing.

It is not as though he was naked or anything and it was not hurting anyone so I do not really see anything wrong with it.

To be honest, I was supposed to do that celebration with him. We both bought the same pants at the same time!

However, I was not playing so I could not join him - and I am quite pleased now because otherwise I would have got the same stick.

I know Stevie really well, after coming through the ranks with him at City, and his mates here have helped him through his problems, which are well documented.

He lives opposite me - his front door is about five seconds away from mine - and we always help each other out.

I have been out since twisting my knee against Bolton but the good news is that hopefully I will be fit to face Portsmouth on Sunday

Some of the things that have been said about him in the press recently have been ridiculous and, at the end of the day, he is a normal human being.

People are always trying to criticise Stevie but he actually has quite a strong character, so for him still to be putting in good performances for City, with everything he has had to deal with, shows that.

He is a quality player who was always highly rated when he was a youngster at City and is now one of the top players in our first team.

Stevie has so much up his sleeve skill-wise and has a good goalscoring record as well. He is always in the right position.

If you have seen his goal against Sunderland then you can see what good technique he has. Some people would have taken an extra touch and some would have fluffed the volley but, from the way he took it, you can tell he is a special player.

It was frustrating for me to miss that game through injury. I watched it from my box at Eastlands and I was kicking every ball - like any player I just wanted to be out there.

I went down to the changing room afterwards just to congratulate everybody because it was not an easy game.

Sunderland work hard and have some good players. It was never going to be a walkover so it was a good three points to get.

We did not play well and people may say we are riding our luck at the moment but we are not third for no reason.

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It was good to bounce back from losing 6-0 to Chelsea by beating Bolton in the Carling Cup and then to get another home Premier League win was important.

I have been out since twisting my knee against Bolton but the good news is that hopefully I will be fit to face Portsmouth on Sunday.

At the time my knee felt really painful but a couple of days later it was a lot better. It was only bruising and I should be back in training on Thursday.

Portsmouth will be a tough challenge because, even when they were not doing so well in the league, going there is always a hard game and they are currently fifth in the Premier League.

We have won seven out of seven in the league at home but we know there is room for improvement with our away record too.

I am not exactly sure what that is down to but it makes a big difference when you have 40,000 fans behind you at home. I did not think that when I used to watch games but when you are playing the crowd makes a difference.

Whatever the reason, we have to get it right and start winning games away from home if we want to challenge in the top six.