TITUS Bramble has urged Shola Ameobi to develop a "horrible streak" if he is to fulfill the promise shown by last weekend's derby double against Sunderland.

With Michael Owen back to full fitness, Ameobi is almost certain to be back on the bench when Newcastle travel to West Brom tomorrow despite shaking off a hamstring scare of his own.

The 24-year-old has spent most of his Magpies career flitting in and out of the first team, but both Graeme Souness and former manager, Sir Bobby Robson, have insisted it is not a lack of talent that is holding him back.

Instead, the pair have pointed to a lack of aggression and urged the Nigeria-born striker to ally a greater will to win to his obvious skill.

Bramble feels such criticism is warranted and admits that, while last weekend's brace highlighted Ameobi's eye for goal, his competitive instincts still need developing.

"At the moment, Shola is too nice a boy," said Bramble, who is expected to retain his first-team spot tomorrow after making a long-awaited return from injury in Wednesday's 1-0 win at Grimsby.

"He's a great player, but he needs to develop a horrible side to his character.

"The great players are ruthless. Once Shola gets that into his game, he can be a great player too.

"Every now and then you see a mean side to him in training, but he's got to move that from the training ground to the pitch.

"He's taken me out in training before, so I know it's inside him somewhere."

If Ameobi needs an example of channeled aggression, he need look no further than the conduct of Alan Shearer on Wednesday night.

Despite needing three stitches in a lip wound after being elbowed in the face by Grimsby defender Justin Whittle, the Newcastle skipper continued to challenge for every ball in the second half before providing the most emphatic of responses with his side's 80th-minute winner.

Souness accepts that Ameobi will never be another Shearer but, after defending his skipper's actions in the aftermath of Wednesday's win, the Magpies manager urged his third-choice striker to take a leaf out of his captain's book.

"I want to see an angry Shola," he said. "I want to see Shola in an Alan Shearer mode. But that has to come from within.

"Shola's got everything to be a player at the highest level, but he's got to be more consistent.

"He's got to be angrier and he's got to be upset when he's not in the team, or when he misses a chance or when someone leaves a bit on him.

"All those things make top players.

"I've never seen a top player not get angry when he's been mistreated either by a referee or by someone he's playing against."

Bramble had a first-hand view of the clash between Shearer and Whittle at Blundell Park and felt referee Mark Halsey's decision not to show a red card was nothing short of "diabolical".

The centre-half was at the heart of a physical battle himself as Grimsby threw a succession of long balls into the box, but marked his return to action with a typically imposing display.

After missing the first four games of the season with hamstring trouble, Bramble looked to have put his injury concerns behind him with three successive appearances in September.

A freak training ground accident soon curtailed his involvement, though, and led to one of the most painful weeks in the 24-year-old's career.

"My elbow injury was a strange one," he said. "It was a training ground accident and there was nothing at all I could do about it.

"I made a sliding tackle against Chops (Michael Chopra), my elbow banged against his knee, and it shattered in four places.

"It was the worst pain I've ever known.

"For the first week, it was absolutely unbearable and I was just about in tears on a couple of occasions."

He is back to full fitness now, though, and hoping his long-standing hamstring problems really are a thing of the past.

The former Ipswich defender missed four months of last season through a succession of niggling injuries and admits he remains wary of what might go wrong.

"Wednesday felt like a bit of a step into the unknown," he admitted. "I'd done all the training, but I wasn't 100 per cent sure about how my hamstring was going to hold up.

"Thankfully, it held up well and I'm sure my overall fitness will improve once I get another couple of games under my belt.

"The more you play, the more you're able to put your previous problems to the back of your mind.

"When you first come back, you're always thinking 'is it going to go or is it not?'.

"After a while, you start to forget about that and ignore everything that's happened in the past."

Read more about Newcastle United FC here.