He said ahead of the clash: 

"I would hope I would get a good reception from them.

I think most people realised when I left Newcastle to go to Cardiff that I had to do it because I wasn't really getting many first-team chances on Tyneside.

But whenever I did play for Newcastle, I always gave 100 per cent - just as I do now for Sunderland.

As for me going back to St James's Park as a Sunderland player, I'm sure the Newcastle fans know I am here for footballing reasons - who you support doesn't come into it."

A lot of the reason for me coming to Sunderland was down to Roy Keane.

You don't get many chances in your career to play for a manager like him.

I enjoyed my time at Cardiff, but everyone knows that the Premiership is the place to play and when Sunderland came along and offered me the chance to play there, I jumped at it."

He added:

"As a North East lad, I know just how much the game means to the fans of both clubs.

But we'll be going into the game full of confidence, having won three games on the trot up to last weekend.

The fact that Kevin Keegan - Newcastle's Messiah - has started winning games has taken a lot of the attention towards them, but what people haven't seen is that we have been winning games, too.

The fact that both clubs were struggling a month ago is probably one of the reasons Sky chose the game.

At that point, we were both right in the middle of the relegation battle and it looked as though the derby might be crucial in terms of who stayed up or went down.

Obviously, it hasn't worked out like that because both ourselves and Newcastle have put a few results together and - while neither of us are safe yet - it looks a lot less likely that either of us will go down.

Going into the game, we haven't got that pressure on, which is good for both clubs - it should be a better game.

What helps is that both clubs are almost safe - assuming they get there.

It's good for both sets of fans because they can look forward to two more derbies next season.

I remember when I was a fan, as soon as the fixtures came out I wasn't interested in looking for when the Manchester United or Arsenal games were, it was the Tyne-Wear derbies that I looked for.

They are the games that mean the world to the fans."

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