Barton anxious to shed 'bad boy' image

(CNN) -- England international Joey Barton desperately wants to show he is a reformed character after serving a six-match Football Association ban for a training ground incident involving former Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo.

The 26-year-old could return to senior action for current club Newcastle in Saturday's derby clash with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Midfielder Barton offers an easy target for opposing fans after also serving 74 days of a six-month prison sentence for assault and affray.

"It is important to me to get my career back on track. I know I am going to get stick, I know that, wherever I go, and I have no problem with that. That stick is totally deserved," Barton told Sky Sports News.

"If anyone else was in my situation, I would probably be saying the same things people are saying about me. I have got to live with that, probably until the end of my playing days.

"There are two ways I can go: I can either let it affect me and go under and become a shadow of the player I can be; or I can turn negatives into positives and use it to my benefit to get me right on the ball and get me back where I belong."

In a series of revealing interviews following his return for the reserves on Tuesday night, Barton has spoken of his self-inflicted misery of the last 18 months.

However, he believes he has the character to come through the most turbulent period of a checkered career that hit a high with his only England cap against Spain in February 2007.

"They -- the critics -- will always be there. I can't do anything about that, those are things that are out of my control," he said.

"But I have a quirky kind of personality where, if people test you and people push you and push you and push you, there's something in-built in me which has got a strong sense of 'Let's prove them wrong'.

"I have always been the underdog, I have always been under-rated, and sometimes when people do that, you find a side to yourself that either goes under, or you stand there and say, 'This is what I am about'."

He paid tribute to former Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan -- the man who fought Barton's corner amid calls for him to be sacked.

He said: "Mr Keegan was massive for me. He has known me a long, long time, and his support at a time when I didn't deserve support, I will be forever grateful for that.

"I will always carry that with me and be eternally grateful. He stuck his neck on the line for me and defended me when I didn't deserve defending and for that man I have got nothing but admiration.

"I was very sorry to see him go. But those things are out of my control.

"There is talk of him in the pipeline coming back - he is a football man, and if anyone knows this football club, it's Mr Keegan."

Barton has been impressed too with the job done by interim boss Joe Kinnear since he was asked to step into the void left by Keegan's resignation.

He said: "Mr Kinnear has come in and he has been a breath of fresh air. He hasn't tried to be anyone else, he has come in and been himself, as I think has been well-documented in his press conferences, and I like him.

"He is a quite straightforward guy. There's a lot of respect in the changing room for him. Mr Keegan was a tough act to follow, but Joe has got his own style and he has stuck to that, and a lot of the lads have responded. If I can go some way to helping them along in whatever is demanded from me, I will be there chipping in with them," added Barton.