DEAN Whitehead has revealed he is preparing for this weekend's visit of Manchester United to the Stadium Of Light with a family feud looming.

Whitehead admitted his father used to take him to watch the Red Devils as a youngster and confessed he was under constant pressure to support the family team.

But the 23-year-old says he resisted his father's persuasive attempts to go over to the red side of Manchester and instead, opted to support their fiercest rivals.

"My dad is a Manchester United fan and he took me to a few games at Old Trafford in the past, when the likes of Eric Cantona was playing for them in the 1990s," said Whitehead.

"He tried to put a bit of pressure on me to support them when I was a kid, but I was having none of it.

"I'm a Liverpool fan, so there has been plenty of tension in the past and there is a bit of tension this week as well. My brother is an Everton fan as well so there has always been lots of rivalry around the dinner table.

"We lived nowhere near the north-west but we all had teams up there."

With Sir Alex Ferguson's side due to arrive at the Stadium of Light this weekend the combative midfielder revealed things have spiced up even more in the Whitehead household.

He said: "My dad has been trying to psyche me out by going on about how good their players are, but I just keep telling him how good we are.

"He's coming up for the game on Saturday and he has said he'll be supporting them, but he always roots for me so I'm sure he'll be supporting us on the day. He's just trying to wind me up. But if he doesn't cheer for us there'll be trouble."

Only two seasons ago Whitehead was plying in his trade in League Two for Oxford United and the midfielder has completed a spectacular rise to the top flight.

He confessed he still has to pinch himself at the thought of competing against the Premiership's elite but is revelling in every single minute of it.

"Three years ago, I never thought I'd be preparing for a run of games like this. But it's happened and it's extremely nice that I am. People say it's a meteoric rise, but I'm really relishing it.

"When you were a kid you'd pretend to be the players playing for a club like Manchester United. But we cannot fear them and we've got to get in among them and upset them. We've got Manchester United, Newcastle and Arsenal in our next three games and if you didn't look forward to games like those then you shouldn't bother playing football.

"But we also know that we have a job to do. We get excited, but we have to be professional as well."

Manager Mick McCarthy recently admitted that his Premier League new boys may have been initially intimidated by the big boys before they finally started to believe they could compete on the same level.

Whitehead even acknowledged that some players, himself included, may have been struck down with a bad case of feeling star-struck, although he admits this is no longer the case.

He said: "We've got to get in among these big sides and upset their game. That's what sides tried to do to us in the Championship last season. We can't go into this game as autograph hunters. When we went to Liverpool, we were looking at their big players, but once the game starts you have to see them as equals.

"OK, so Steven Gerrard is a hell of a good player, but he is just a footballer. We've put a little run of results together, which has helped everybody's confidence, but we also know we need to try to get something from our next three games."

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