JOHN CARVER has pledged that Newcastle United’s players will match Sunderland’s physical intensity when they attempt to end a run of four successive derby defeats at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.

The Magpies head to Wearside looking to avoid what would be a record fifth straight reverse, and Carver was involved in all four of the previous defeats in his capacity as assistant manager to Alan Pardew.

The interim head coach has spent much of the last fortnight poring over the statistics from the last four derbies, and was alarmed to learn that Sunderland’s players outworked their opponents in every one of the games.

He is adamant that cannot be allowed to happen again at the weekend, and will be demanding a much greater level of intensity than was the case when Sunderland claimed a 1-0 win at St James’ Park in December.

Carver said: “We know our record recently isn't very good, and we have to break that situation. We’ve got enough in the dressing room to do that.

“It always hurts to lose to Sunderland, but it's the manner of a couple of those defeats that has made things worse.

“In the last four games, Sunderland have outworked us and that's not a good stat to have. I'll be making sure that doesn't happen again and I'll be using a whip to make sure we don't get outworked.

“We need to do enough to give ourselves a chance to win the game, so we need to do the same as we did against Arsenal in terms of work-rate as that was the highest since I've been back at the club.

“If we can cover anywhere near as much ground with the same intensity as a fortnight ago, it will give us a good chance of winning.”

Mehdi Abeid returns to the squad for Sunday’s game, and is set to start at the Stadium of Light after recovering from the thigh injury that kept him out of last month’s defeats to Everton and Arsenal.

Rolando Aarons is back in training, but will not be risked on Wearside, while Massadio Haidara has been ruled out of the rest of the campaign following surgery on his knee.

Adam Armstrong is contending for a starting spot following a successful spell with the England Under-20s, but while Carver feels the striker has rediscovered his best form after a recent dip in standards, he is wary of pitching him into the intensity of a Wear-Tyne battle.

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He said: “He went away with England and scored a spectacular goal, and if you've not seen it it's worth a look. With young players they go up and down, and we've seen that with Perez.

"I thought (Ayoze) Perez was fantastic against Arsenal after that little break we gave him. They will always have a spell in their careers especially when they're developing when they have a good purple patch and then come off the pace a bit.

“Armstrong had a little dip in form and suddenly he's scored for the (Newcastle) U21s and for England and all of a sudden your confidence is back. He's in a better place now on the back of his recent goals.

"You have to cope with the heat of the derby. It either makes or breaks you and I will decide if he's right for it.”

Newcastle’s players are currently training at St James’ Park, with Carver keen to shake up the usual pre-match routine in order to reflect the importance of Sunday’s game.

He said: “It’s just a different approach. We've had some horrendous weather this week, so we thought we'd get them into the stadium and a good private environment.

“We're not going to stay in a hotel (before the game), but we're going to have a pre-match meal together and we've got one or two other things that I don't really want to touch on that we're doing with the players and staff. It's fair to say our preparation has been slightly different.”