KEVIN Keegan says he cannot wait to sample the unique atmosphere of the Tyne-Wear derby once again.

The Newcastle United boss won all four of the derbies with Sunderland during his first spell in charge of the Magpies - and there's no doubting his desire to maintain winning ways against our traditional rivals.

Speaking at his Press Conference before the game, KK said: "Derby matches are very special, and if you ever see them as not being very special, that's when you get the shocks.

"If the players don't realise already what derby matches mean from previous clubs, then you would be disappointed.

"But the good thing for us is we have a lot of experienced players and if the Michael Owens and the Mark Vidukas - I could go on - don't understand how big this game is, nobody does."

Black Cats gaffer Roy Keane had used the build-up to the match to express his delight at seeing KK back in football at St. James' Park.

And the complements were returned on Friday as the United chief said of his opposite number: "Roy has done a fantastic job - and I said that way before I came back here to manage Newcastle again.

"He is a big character and he has got the immediate respect of players because he is not asking them to do anything he has not done on a football pitch.

"He has done as well as I did when I first came into management as a rookie here, because the Premier League has changed.

"He could not do with Sunderland what I did with Newcastle all those years ago because the top four clubs now and the finances available to a lot of the others mean you just cannot make that leap from the division below into the top half of the Premier League so easily.

"What he has achieved is comparable to what I achieved. It doesn't look as good, but in reality, the goalposts have been moved so far that it is a major achievement.

"Once you stabilise a club like Sunderland coming up from the other division, then you can start to look at taking it to the next stage, and that's what they will be looking to do."