IT WOULD COME as little surprise to Newcastle United supporters to learn that one of their players has been receiving advice about anger management. Lee Bowyer has been known to display the odd flash of temper — Kieron Dyer could point to the bruises that prove it — but any fingers pointing in his direction are misdirected. Fans may be perplexed to learn that Shola Ameobi is the individual concerned.

As one of the most placid footballers in the Barclays Premiership, Ameobi is not a natural candidate for such treatment, except that he has been consulting a sports psychologist in order to increase his fury rather than reduce it. The centre forward’s languid body language has been questioned and as his club look to a future without Alan Shearer, he understands that a remedy is needed.

Nineteen appearances for the England Under-21 team reflects Ameobi’s natural talent and, at 6ft 2in, he possesses the physical attributes to harass defenders. Yet he has scored only 19 goals in 138 league matches for Newcastle — 66 have been as a substitute — and lacks consistency. His improvement in the two games under Glenn Roeder’s caretaker management has been marked.

Reverting to his preferred position alongside Shearer, Ameobi mustered his third goal of the campaign at Villa Park last weekend and his next task is to maintain his level of performance, with Southampton next in his sights in the fifth round of the FA Cup at St James Park today. “I want to be Michael Owen’s partner next season,” he said. “I’ve been given a great chance to make a case for myself and that’s what I ’m trying to do. I want to make it hard for the manager to leave me out.”

The 24-year-old is learning to toughen up. “I’m not saying I don’t give 100 per cent every time I step out onto the pitch, but I can improve,” he said. “You need that presence as a big guy and I know I can bring that to the team. I’ve been too nice in the past because of my nature, and I need to be more aggressive. It will benefit me and the club if I can. I’m naturally laid-back. I don’t get worked up about many things, but as a player you have to get yourself riled before a game and whatever it takes, you do it. Every player’s different. It has to come from within and, in the last four months, I’ve been seeing someone to try and focus my mind. Football is 70 per cent in the head; we’re not here because we’re bad players.

Selfishness is another requirement. “The big thing is the goals,” he said. “We need a striker who can score and I’ve not done that as much as I would have liked in my career. I need to be scoring goals like Alan has done for ten years.”

As the right back in Ipswich Town’s victorious FA Cupwinning team of 1978, George Burley was a model of consistency. Now manager of Southampton, Burley is hoping that the Cup can inspire a team has gained only one victory in 11 Coca-Cola Championship matches since he replaced Harry Redknapp at St Mary’s two days before Christmas.

“The FA Cup is all about upsets. No one gives us a chance, but non-league teams have done well this year and so, too, have teams from the lower divisions. They have made the competition really interesting,” Burley said.

“We can go up there and be upbeat. Although our priority is to build a side that will get us back into the Premier League, the FA Cup is still special and they don’t come much bigger than this one.

“Newcastle are a top side full of international players. And knowing that Chelsea are going to win the Premiership they will see winning the FA Cup as the next biggest thing.”

NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-4-2): S Given — P Ramage, T Bramble, J-A Boumsong, R Elliott — N Solano, Emre, S Parker, C N’Zogbia — A Shearer, S Ameobi.

SOUTHAMPTON (4-4-2): B Bialkowski — A Ostlund, D Powell, D Higginbotham, J Brennan — D Potter, M Oakley, J Wright, K Kosowski — M Pahars, P Madsen.

Referee: M Atkinson.

TELEVISION: Live, BBC One, from 5.30pm.

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