THAT old Newcastle-Sunderland rivalry has flared up in a football-daft area - all thanks to a controversial advertisement.

Students at East Durham and Houghall Community College, based at Peterlee, County Durham, learnt that not everything is black and white when they designed an advertisement for the Sunderland fanzine, A Love Supreme.

The tongue-in-cheek advertisement shows Newcastle centre forward Alan Shearer struggling to tie the bootlaces of Sunderland striker Kevin Phillips.

Other advertisements produced by the students also show Sunderland AFC players in a positive light, and have delighted the big Black Cats following at the college.

One bore the legend "Some people think a college course is harder than Kevin Ball", and another said the college created "More opportunities than Niall Quinn's head".

College manager Malcolm Fox said the Newcastle United supporters at the college had been very sporting about the commercials.

He said: "It's all a bit of a laugh really, and I've always said that I'd be happy to consider advertising in a Newcastle fanzine, but they've never approached us.