ALAN PARDEW has backed Jak Alnwick to put Wednesday’s clanger at Tottenham behind him and cope with the unique pressures of Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby.

Alnwick will make his third senior start when Sunderland visit St James’ Park at the weekend, having recovered from the shoulder problem that dogged him in the closing stages of this week’s 4-0 defeat at White Hart Lane.

It remains to be seen whether he can shrug off the mental scars of Wednesday night as quickly, with his failure to hold on to a Christian Eriksen corner having enabled Nabil Bentaleb to open the scoring as Newcastle were dumped out of the Capital One Cup.

With all talk of an emergency loan signing having been shelved, Alnwick will be charged with the task of repelling a Sunderland side looking for their third successive victory on Tyneside, and Pardew is confident the 21-year-old is up to the job.

“The game is going to be pressurised for Jak because of the error that got punished, and I’ve seen many better goalies than Jak make a similar error and not get punished because there’s a defender there,” said the Newcastle boss.

“Unfortunately for him it ended up in the back of the net, so there’s pressure on him for that mistake, and the fact that he’s third choice here. I think he will deal with it – I think he’s a strong enough character to do that.”

Pardew will have a one-on-one chat with Alnwick prior to Sunday’s game, but claims he would have done so anyway given the importance of the occasion.

“I think it’s important to talk to players, particularly young players, and I would have been speaking to Jak whether he had made the mistake or not,” he said. “So for sure, yes, I’ll be talking to him.”

Newcastle have a host of key players returning ahead of Sunday, with Daryl Janmaat available following suspension and Steven Taylor, Cheick Tiote and Sammy Ameobi all expected to be fit to start.

Taylor trained today, with Tiote and Ameobi both due to take part in a full session yesterday, and while Papiss Cisse continues to suffer from a cold, there is a still a chance the striker could have recovered by the weekend.

“Papiss was in today, although he still didn’t look particularly great in terms of carrying a heavy cold,” said Pardew. “We’re in a lot better position than we were on Wednesday night, which is good news in terms of this fixture.

“We were a bit thin on the ground (at Spurs) and that’s the first time we’ve been really stretched as a squad. The squad have done great, but we just didn’t really have enough at Spurs unfortunately. Hopefully, on Sunday, we’ll have no excuse in terms of having senior players available and plenty of options on the bench.”

Having suffered 3-0 defeats in the last two derbies on Tyneside, Pardew admits the result of Sunday’s game will play a major role in determining how the first half of the season is viewed.

“Will it change the season? No. But will it change the perception of the season? Perhaps, because if Sunderland win the perception will be that they’ve had a decent first half – if we win, it will be a really good first half,” he said.

“That’s the perception, but points wise it’s three points and we can’t get away from that. We’re in a great position in the league, and if we win we take ourselves right back amongst the top six again.”