EXCLUSIVE: Former Newcastle United striker Nile Ranger remembers his time at the club well - especially when it comes to club legend and former manager Alan Shearer

Newcastle United players were banned from going out in the city centre during their unsuccessful battle to avoid relegation under Alan Shearer in 2009, but some squad members found a way around the rules. There were some hiccups, though, with one of these attempts to go out on the sly ending up with Andy Carroll driving off with team-mate Nile Ranger stood on his car.

Carroll shed some light on the episode in his new autobiography ‘Owning It’, claiming he drove away at 50 miles per hour with Ranger on the bonnet. However, his former colleague has a slightly different recollection.

“We got banned from the nights out in Newcastle. Alan Shearer said we needed to fight. So me, Andy, and my friend Henry, we went to Leeds on a night out,” Ranger told Mirror Football .

“I remember putting petrol in the tank but I wanted to be in the front seat because I could put the chair all the way back. Then obviously, my friend got to the first and called shotgun and I just said, nah, f*** this.

“I said, 'no we're not going' and Carroll’s like, 'nah man, come on, man', you know what a Geordie he was, and he started driving with me on the flipping roof, it was madness.”

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The striker made the revelation as he prepares for his boxing debut against former Arsenal forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas. And, despite breaking Shearer’s rule, he maintained a good relationship with the former Magpies boss.

“[Shearer was a] top man. Top guy,” Ranger added. “Gave me my new contract and put me in the first team changing room. He really liked me, out of all the youngsters, he proper looked out for me, him and Iain Dowie.”

Ranger and Emmanuel-Thomas are old friends and will come to blows in the name of charity as part of A Night to Remember III. The seven-fight card from Pro Project Promotions also includes a match-up between Ranger’s old Newcastle mentor Sebastien Bassong - another member of Shearer’s relegated squad - and former Senegal international Armand Traore.

“Alan Shearer said none of us were allowed out in Newcastle but we didn't want to feel like we're in the army, we wanted to have a bit of fun,” he recaled. “As well as fighting a relegation battle, we wanted to have fun still.

“They had someone at the main [nightclub] in Newcastle watching in case any of the players arrived. If anyone went to the club, the wages you would have been fined, bonkers.”

Shearer named Ranger on the bench for his second match in charge, a 1-1 draw with Stoke City in April 2009, and handed the then-teenager a bumper contract just a few days later. However, it was Chris Hughton who would hand him a competitive debut the following season in the Championship and a Premier League bow in 2010.

As with Shearer, there were highs and lows in the relationship with Hughton and often this had a little to do with Ranger’s entourage. More than a decade on, the player can put it down to the kind of mischief players will often get up to in their teens, though at the time it let to Hughton calling Ranger’s mum in for a meeting in an effort to sort things out.

“I got homesick so much and I couldn't keep going back with the fixtures and all the other stuff. So I said ‘You know what? I'm going to make my friends come up and my cousins and that and it felt like a mini London in there’,” he added.

“I'll have the football banter, then I'll go back and have my mandem there, my people there at home with me. So it's like I've got the best of both worlds, then every so often I go back to London but obviously it felt good with having and that family friends up there.

“Chris Hughton would get onto me like 'You need to let them go home' and I'll be like, 'Nah, if they go I'm going as well', silly things like that.”

Reflecting on the meeting with Hughton and his mum, Ranger suggested his stock was high enough that he was willing to stand firm. “He was in shock because he really liked me. He was like 'are you stupid or what?',” he said. “But at the time, I knew it sounds crazy, I was in favour.

“They could see big things happening with me from the football side so they didn't want to be like 'fine we'll rip your contract up'. They could make money off me, basically. It's a business, football, to be honest and I was quite hot, a hot prospect.”

Eventually, off-field matters spelt the end of Ranger’s career. He left the club by mutual consent during Alan Pardew’s time in charge and dropped down the divisions, most recently playing for Whyteleafe in the Isthmian League.

He has also joined Baller League, the six-a-side competition which has also featured former Newcastle United players such as Ciaran Clark and Stephen Ireland. For now, though, he’s focusing on his boxing bow before any decision on his next steps on the pitch - and fancies himself to cause a surprise despite opponent Emmanuel-Thomas training for the bout with friend and 27-4 boxer Anthony Yarde.

“Yeah he’s got Anthony Yarde in his corner but it's his first fight,” Ranger added. “Once you get punched in your face, everything goes out the window.

“And I know this. Trust me. I've been sparring with gorillas, I promise you that. So it's just different. I'm not saying I'm Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, that's definitely not what it is, but I've shocked myself with how decent I am.”