Gateshead-born Carroll has been with the Magpies since the age of nine – as a player, season ticket holder and even ball boy.
Andy Carroll: “Everyone wants to be Newcastle’s number nine. But I just want to play football and win games. We just need to get straight back into the Premier League and that is what everyone is going for.
“Wearing the number nine shirt was what I dreamed of all the time. I think everyone does that. I had probably had my name on the back of a (replica) shirt with the number nine on it.
“I was a ball boy all the time from 12 to about 14.
“I used to love it. And when I became too old to be a ball boy I got a season ticket. The strikers at the time were Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand and Duncan Ferguson.
“There was one game – I am not quite sure which one – when I went home and told everyone I had set a goal up. I threw it in quickly and they scored.
“My parents used to record the matches and watch them back just to see a few seconds of me!
“It was Alan Shearer I always modelled myself on.
“I think everyone did really. Just Shearer. He was sheer class, scoring every week with his head and feet. It was his hold-up play and his influence on everyone around him.
“I would like to be known as an all-round striker but if I score all the rest of my goals with headers I will take them.
“I have been at Newcastle since I was nine.
“I was at Redheugh Boys' Club, then moved to Low Fell Juniors.
“I got invited to go to Sunderland and Newcastle the same time. I was training on a Tuesday at Newcastle and a Thursday at Sunderland.
“It came down to the end of the season and I had to pick one. Really it was an easy choice. My mum’s side are all Sunderland so I was getting a bit of stick off them – but it was always Newcastle for me, even though my nana wanted me to be the new Niall Quinn.”