JACKIE Milburn elevated it to footballing folklore, Alan Shearer revelled in its emotional relevance and Andy Carroll spent most of his Newcastle United career trying to make it his own.

But speak to Demba Ba about Newcastle's iconic number nine shirt, and you will elicit an undemonstrative shrug.

It isn't that the Magpies' latest striking star is unaware of the historical significance of one of the most famous shirts in football. He might not be able to recite Malcolm Macdonald's goalscoring statistics, but he has already spent enough time on Tyneside to appreciate the reverence the club's supporters display for their centre-forwards.

It isn't even that he feels he does not yet deserve such special status. For all that he arrived on a free transfer in the summer, no other Newcastle striker has scored two hat-tricks in his first nine starts for the club.

It is just that, to Ba, a number on the back of a shirt is simply that. Nine, nineteen or ninety-nine, it doesn't make any difference to a refreshingly open character who has emerged as the surprise spearhead of Newcastle's unexpected surge to the top three of the Premier League.

"It just doesn't bother me," said the Senegal international, who will go into today's game with Everton having scored eight goals in his last five matches. "It is just a number.

"Just because you have the number nine shirt doesn't mean you will score goals. I had number 29 and then nine at Hoffenheim, it didn't make me any different a player. At West Ham it was 21. The number does not score goals.

"Maybe it would mean something to the supporters, but you can have the number nine shirt and never score a goal. I am not going to take it off someone else.

"When you look at the number nine, it is normally the striker and number one is the keeper. Number five is the central defender, but it is not because you wear number nine or 19 that you can score some goals. That is all down to you and your feet. I am quite happy with the number I have now."

That number is 19, and having made a conscious decision not to hand Ba the fabled number nine in the summer, Pardew increasingly believes his optimum role is better suited to a different numerical identifier.

While Newcastle supporters love their number nines, much of the rest of the world worships the number ten shirt, with its historical association to the play-maker who links midfield with attack.

Ba's hat-trick in Monday's 3-1 win at Stoke might have hogged the headlines, but the quality of the striker's all-round performance did not go unnoticed by his manager, particularly as he had been asked to perform a more creative role.

"I've been playing him in a slightly different role to the one he was performing at West Ham, and I think that's improved him," said Pardew. "It's enabling him to be more involved in the game and, technically, I think he's a great player.

"To be honest, I don't think he's a natural number nine. I see him more as a number ten, and I think he's doing that role very well.

"I've given him more of a link role, and he's done that brilliantly. When you are under pressure, you need somebody to take the ball in up the top of the pitch and Demba can do that. He knows how to buy some time, keep possession or draw a foul to ease the pressure. He did that terrifically at Stoke."

He will be asked to perform the same role against Everton today, with Newcastle looking for the win that will lift them into second position for at least a couple of hours.

Such a scenario looked extremely unlikely in the summer, when a string of high-profile exits left some commentators predicting a protracted battle against relegation.

The reality has been somewhat different, and Ba, who could be unavailable for up to a month at the start of 2012 as he represents Senegal in the African Cup of Nations, sees no reason why Newcastle cannot maintain the momentum that has propelled them up the table.

"We are playing great as a team," said Ba, whose tally of 15 Premier League goals in 2011 is only bettered by Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie. "I think my goals are just the finish of everything else that is working very well. I am in the box finishing things off, but it's a team thing.

"At the moment, everything is really enjoyable. I enjoyed my time with West Ham because we were a good football team, but unfortunately we did not have the little things to make it in the league.

"This season at Newcastle, we are playing a lot better than we were at West Ham. We have that little something that keeps us going and winning."