Craig Gordon: “People understandably focus on who will be the goal hero in these games, but I know myself that goalkeepers have a role to play as I had to pull off an injury-time save once to deny Hibs a late winner.
“But in terms of the Wear-Tyne derby, the obvious example is Thomas Sorensen’s late penalty save from Alan Shearer back in 2000 when Sunderland won 2-1 at St James’ Park.
“You can’t really forget something like that. Especially when there’s pictures of Thomas’ save everywhere – especially the training ground.
“Steve hasn’t told me to take an extra look at them to get inspiration for Sunday, but that was a good moment for this club and one that will always be remembered for a very long time.
“Of course you would like to have a major say in a derby with a save at a crucial moment but that sort of ‘hero moment’ doesn’t happen that often for goalkeeper.
"I’d love to be that person, but hopefully my time to make a save will come after we’ve scored a few at the other end.
“I’ll not be going into Sunday’s game looking to be the hero.
"I’ll be content just to go out there and do my job and see what happens.”