IT is ironic that, when it comes to the social scene, Kieron Dyer has earned a reputation as a player. The phrase, with its inevitably pejorative undertones, ignores the way in which he has eschewed a hedonistic lifestyle in the last 12 months to devote his time and energy to his career.

And, perhaps more pertinently, the description of Dyer as a player also flies in the face of footballing fact. For most of the last two seasons, the midfielder has been anything but.

Since scoring the opener in last April's UEFA Cup quarter-final defeat to Sporting Lisbon, Dyer has suffered three successive breakdowns, each one more traumatic than the last.

With the medication he was taking to treat a liver complaint making his already fragile hamstrings even more susceptible to damage, the 27-year-old admitted to feeling "suicidal" as each attempt at a comeback was aborted almost as soon as it had begun.

Footballers are accused of a multitude of sins - rightly or wrongly, Dyer has been accused more than most - but, when push comes to shove, most simply want to play football.

For all his celebrity trappings, the England international is no exception and, on Saturday, he finally got his wish. With Alan Shearer having failed a lunchtime fitness test on an injured calf, Dyer made his first start since August as Newcastle took on Southampton in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

By the time he left the field some 76 minutes later, his recovery was finally complete. After months of emotional and physical hell, he was a player once again.

"There was an awful lot going through my mind," said Dyer, whose fevered reaction to his 68th-minute match-winner spoke of a massive mental release. "More than anything else, this has reminded me how much I love playing football.

"The gaffer talked about it before the game. He said, 'Look at everything this boy has gone through and then look at how excited he is to get out on the pitch and play football'. I was like a schoolkid again out there.

"I think you could see how much it all meant to me. A lot of frustration came out there and a lot of relief.

"I was incredibly emotional when the ball hit the net. I didn't plan the celebration, it just came out like that. I knew I would get booked but, to be perfectly honest, I just didn't care.

"I wanted to go straight to the fans and show them how much it all meant to me. I wanted to show my delight and also my relief. There was a lot of frustration caught up in that goal and I wanted to let it all out."

The hope now is that Dyer's latest comeback does not prove to be another false dawn. The former Ipswich midfielder has had more than his fair share of problems on Tyneside, and not all of them have been medical in nature.

After refusing to play on the right of midfield at the start of last season, he was booed on to the St James' Park pitch during England's friendly victory over Ukraine. Eight months later, and more unsavoury headlines followed an on-field brawl with team-mate Lee Bowyer.

Yet, through his myriad of woes, Dyer has largely retained the support of the Newcastle fans.

Perhaps they sense a troubled soul with a passion to match their own. Perhaps they see the midfielder as the sole creative throwback to their club's more adventurous past. Either way, they are willing him to succeed and that, in itself, represents a victory of sorts.

"The ovation I got when I came on against Portsmouth was first class," said Dyer. "But (on Saturday) it was even better.

"The fans have been behind me through my troubles and I am thankful for that. I was rightly booed at the start of last season and that was a major test of my character, but I think I have come through it okay.

"I knew I had to win the fans back round and I hope this has gone some way towards doing that. I owe it to the fans, not just the players and the rest of the staff at the club. The fans have stuck by me and now I want to replay them for that."

More performances like Saturday's would undoubtedly help. Dyer was hardly at his sharpest, but that was only to be expected given the length of his lay-off and the brevity of his substitute appearances this month.

His presence alone, though, was enough to give his side a subtlety different appearance from the one they have sported this term.

With Craig Bellamy having departed, and Michael Owen having broken his foot, Newcastle have been crying out for an injection of pace. With Dyer in the side, they need cry no more.

"His attitude in the first half, when he was full of energy and frustration, was typical of Kieron," said caretaker manager, Glenn Roeder. "He's a player that wants to please yhe likes to be told he's done well.

"Sometimes he overdid it, but that's only his way of trying to impress. It was fitting he scored the winning goal because I thought his performance deserved it.

"We have to be careful and we can't say he's there and back to full match fitness. But we're going down the right road and, at the moment, that's all we can do."

For Newcastle, the 'right road' could yet lead to Cardiff. While Wembley's builders sketch out new building schedules, a favourable draw this afternoon would leave Newcastle on the brink of their second successive appearance in the last four.

Their progression to the quarter-final stage was not always assured, although a greater composure in front of goal would surely have ended Southampton's spirited resistance at a far earlier stage.

Shola Ameobi rattled a post after creating space on the edge of the area in the 11th minute, and a combination of Jean-Alain Boumsong's head and goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski's fist saw the ball rebound off the crossbar on the stroke of half-time.

With Bialkowski also making an athletic stop to thwart another Ameobi strike, Southampton began the second half in far more adventurous fashion and a shock would have been on the cards had Shay Given not produced yet another world-class save to tip a Kenwyne Jones shot over the top.

As it was, though, Newcastle finally broke the deadlock with 22 minutes left. Charles N'Zogbia made a powerful surge through the middle and, after bending his run to stay onside, Dyer stroked his through ball beyond Bialkowski's left hand.

Almost inevitably, the game ended with an injury as Bialkowski was stretchered off to leave striker Dexter Blackstock in Southampton's goal.

For once, though, it was not Dyer receiving the sympathetic applause. Justifiably, his reception had been far more rapturous.

Result: Newcastle United 1, Southampton 0.

Read more about Newcastle United FC here.