Newcastle defender claims former striker Carroll will offer no surprises this weekend

The Magpies will travel to West Ham United looking to record a seventh successive victory for the first time in Alan Pardew’s stewardship, and Carroll will be desperate to line up against his former employers after making his first start of the season in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Everton.

Sam Allardyce is hoping to have Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho available after the pair missed the trip to Goodison Park, but neither will have a full week of training under their belt and Carroll is expected to remain in the Hammers’ starting line-up.

Carroll scored 33 goals in 91 Newcastle appearances before completing a £35m move to Liverpool in 2011, with his aggressive, physical style making him a favourite of the St James’ Park support.

The majority of Newcastle’s defenders boast extensive experience of playing against him in training though, so the 25-year-old’s assets will hardly come as a surprise if he retains his place in the side.

“It’s going to be a really tough game against West Ham because they’re a team in form,” said Dummett. “They’ve been doing really well this season, and obviously they’ve got Andy Carroll back now as well.

“Everyone knows what he did when he was here and none of us will need reminding about the threat he poses. I didn’t really play against him personally because when he was here, I was probably a bit too young and wasn’t really involved in the first team.

“I haven’t played against him too often – an odd time when I was playing at left-back and he was up front for the other team maybe – but he’s the type of player where there’s not really any secrets about what you’re up against.”

With Steven Taylor having returned to light training at the end of last week, it remains to be seen whether Dummett remains at centre-half in four days time.

While Fabricio Coloccini has no chance of being involved at Upton Park, Taylor should be available to return to the fray so there is a strong likelihood of Dummett returning to left-back with Mike Williamson continuing at the heart of the back four.

That would be slightly harsh on Dummett, as his best two performances of the season have arguably been his displays against Manchester City in the Capital One Cup and QPR last weekend, both of which came at centre-half.

The Wales international insists he is more than happy to fill the full-back berth, but with even Pardew conceding his long-term future will almost certainly be in central defence, there will come a point where his development would be aided by a prolonged run in his best position.

“There’s a lot of defenders on form at the moment, so the manager has a decision to make every time he picks the team,” said Dummett. “It’s good for any team to have that and I’m sure it’s what every manager wants.”

While Pardew was forced to make radical alterations to his back four at the weekend, Newcastle were still able to record their fifth clean sheet in the last six matches.

They boast the best defensive record in the Premier League over the course of the last month, with Dummett claiming that defensive work on the training ground is the key to their success.

“We’ve kept a lot of clean sheets recently, and I think that just goes to show how well compact we are as a team,” he said. “We’re working hard together to strive to get clean sheets, and keeping clean sheets is always going to be important.

“With a clean sheet, you can always go on to get goals, and we’ve done that in the last few weeks. We just have to keep it going now.

“We work hard on the defensive shape in training, and that’s what’s given us success in the last few weeks. We’ve kept a really strong defensive shape, and that’s been the base that’s allowed us to hit teams on the break and score goals.

“With the players we’ve got going forward, we know that if we keep it tight at the back, we’ll always have a good chance of winning games.”