Newcastle manager Alan Pardew remains scarred from their north-east Derby mauling to Sunderland last season

The Magpies boss oversaw his side as they lost 3-0 to a Paolo Di Canio-inspired Black Cats

Alan Pardew has admitted that last season's shock defeat to Sunderland has left him scarred (GETTY IMAGES)

Alan Pardew has admitted he will always carry the mental scars of Newcastle's derby mauling by Sunderland.

The Black Cats arrived at St James' Park on April 14 deep in relegation trouble to face a side which considered itself unfortunate to have slipped out of the Europa League at the quarter-final stage just three days earlier.

However, it was the visitors who left with a shock 3-0 victory which made fledgling manager Paolo Di Canio an instant hero on Wearside and left Pardew to face a distinctly uncomfortable conclusion to the season.

That black day still rankles with the Magpies manager, as does a 9-0 defeat by Liverpool as a Crystal Palace player 24 years ago with time having done little to dull the pain.

Pardew said: "It's one of those games that will never leave me, like the 9-0 at Liverpool when I lost as a player.

"But there is always a chance in football to get your revenge. At Crystal Palace, we did in the [1990 FA Cup] semi-final when we won 4-3.

"This game - I think we have played well in all the games when I have been manager apart from one, so therefore I am disappointed and I need to make sure the next one we play puts that one to bed.

"Hopefully we do that."

The respective combatants head into the latest edition of the Wear-Tyne conflict having experienced contrasting fortunes in recent weeks with Sunderland losing seven of their eight Barclays Premier League games to date to sit at the bottom of the table and Newcastle bouncing back from successive defeats by Hull and Everton to take four points from Cardiff and Liverpool.

Victory for the Black Cats would be their first of the season and give new manager Gus Poyet fresh hope that he can get the club out of trouble, while Pardew will hope for a victory which, as it did two seasons ago when the Magpies went on to finish fifth, might prove the springboard for bigger things.

The 52-year-old said: "We are looking for our third away win - I think we only got two last year - so that's another incentive for us.

"There's a lot on this game which will tell us about our season. I'd like to think we can get a result, but hopefully a win.

"It would put us on 14 points, which would be a great total after nine games. That's another big incentive for us."

Pardew's five derbies to date have brought a win, three draws and just that one defeat, and it is a fixture he has come to enjoy, if not the most recent instalment.

He said: "You can enjoy it because the passion is just phenomenal in this game from both sets of fans. They create that frenzy.

"It's very important that the manager tries to keep a calm head, and that's what I try to do because you have got to look through some of the craziness that is going on on the pitch and find a solution."

Pardew has only one real headache ahead of kick-off as he waits for central defenders Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor, both of whom are battling to shake off injuries.

Should neither make it, 22-year-old left-back Paul Dummett could be asked to reprise the emergency role he filled for more than half the game after Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa's sending-off against Liverpool last weekend.

Dummett was part of the Wales squad earlier this month, but is yet to be capped at senior international level, but as a Geordie who has been at the club since the age of nine, he along with fellow locals Taylor and Shola and Sammy Ameobi, has wasted few opportunities to impress upon the Magpies' cosmopolitan dressing room just how important Sunday's game is.

He said: "We did speak to them last week about it. We let them know exactly how much it means to the fans to win that game.

"I am a fan and I know exactly what this fixture means, and I'll give everything I can to win that game. Hopefully I will be involved."

PA