Newcastle's Shola Ameobi feels the hate in a 'game like no other'

Shola Ameobi settles into an armchair, stretches his long legs and hunts for some suitably meaningless clichés. "No one likes losing but, at the end of the day it's just a game, it's just three points," he says before starting to laugh at himself. The platitudes are swiftly binned. "Like I say, it's only a game," continues Newcastle's long-serving striker. "But it's one we have to win. If we don't, tempers will flare in the dressing room." In the absence of the injured Andy Carroll, Ameobi is poised to lead Alan Pardew's attack in tomorrow's north-east derby at the Stadium of Light. Any Sunderland fans cheering Carroll's absence would do well to reflect on his understudy and sometime partner's impressive scoring record against their side. Last October Ameobi, typically, contributed two goals as Steve Bruce's players were demolished 5-1 on Tyneside. "We know Sunderland will be looking for retribution," he says. "We are facing a wounded animal at their most dangerous; we'll have to fight for every ball." Ameobi's analysis is delivered in a fabulously distinctive Geordie-Nigerian accent, a legacy of his move to the inner Newcastle suburb of Fenham from west Africa at the age of six when his father embarked on a PhD in agriculture at the city's university. The family initially struggled to settle in what was then a very white corner of England. "For a few years we struggled to pull the strings together to try and fit in; it took a while to be accepted because we looked different and lived differently – and I still remember the shock of the cold," he recalls. A watershed came when he learned to play football on an urban hilltop pitch offering splendid views of St James' Park and began fantasising about one day scoring goals there. Ameobi is now so absorbed in living this dream that he seems a little diffident about yesterday's inaugural summons to the Nigeria squad for a friendly with Guatemala next month when, at the age of 29, he may make his senior international debut. The emotional ties that once bound a homesick little boy to his birthplace have long since loosened. "I've been back but not that often," acknowledges the former England Under-21 international originally from the northern Nigerian city of Zaria, formerly Zazzau. A deep thinker and a voracious reader, Ameobi – who boasts 11 GCSEs and two A levels (maths and biology) – might have followed his father into academia had an unorthodox amalgam of exquisite skill, clever turns, inspired passes and, of course, goals not led him down an alternative path. He is, however, well qualified to write a thesis on peculiarly parochial passions. "Playing in derbies against Sunderland, against your arch rivals, is what I dreamt about as a child, it's extra special," says this proud one-club man. "This derby is like no other game. Coming out of Sunderland's tunnel is a bit surreal, it's hard to explain the feeling when you have that much hatred being thrown at you from the fans and you are out there trying to perform, trying to play football, trying to play the game not the occasion. It does really get your blood going, it's do or die. I'm excited." Ameobi may well be marked by his one-time Newcastle team-mate Titus Bramble. "Titus is still a friend," he says. "I do sometimes see a few of the other Sunderland players socially too. None are great mates but friendships go out of the window in derbies. You're fighting for your life." More than mere pride is at stake: "We're in a good position in the Premier League at the moment but we know a couple of bad results can move us down the table." Indeed underlying boardroom fears of a looming relegation fight dictated that even Sunderland's Halloween trouncing allied to a subsequent win at Arsenal would not be sufficient to preserve Chris Hughton's job. The unusually harsh sacking of Pardew's predecessor brings out the inner diplomat in a striker who has played for 11 managers at St James' while also overcoming a career threatening hip injury. "People will have views about what happened to Chris," says Ameobi. "Chris did a great job but we move on. We have a new manager who knows what he wants to do and where he wants to take this club. His players are fully behind him. We are all wanting to give him a win in his first derby." Should Newcastle succeed, Pardew need not fear his centre-forward running riot in Tyneside's infamous Bigg Market nightspots. "After the 5-1 I stayed at home with my wife and our little girl," says Ameobi. "To be honest, I was a bit tired." He will be delighted to feel similarly exhausted tomorrow .