Newcastle United – News Roundup – 20 August 2009.
Posted on August 20th, 2009 | 23 Comments |
“I don’t think it was the prettiest win, but nonetheless it was very pleasing.
“I think we needed that second goal for the game to open up but their keeper has made some terrific saves.
“We got the early goal like we’d hoped and it was a great goal, real route one stuff and another fantastic finish from Shola.
“After that both sides have had a couple of good chances and we’ve got Steve Harper to thank for two great saves in the second-half.
“But we’ve got the win and that’s the most important thing.
“We’re back up to third and confidence is high and two successive wins.”
With our extremely small squad I cringe every time there’s mention of an injury. Hughton had this to say about Carroll, who limped off in the second half of last night’s game:
“It’s a very, very slight groin strain.
“But we’ll wait until the morning before taking a further look and we’re hopeful it’s not too serious.”
In other news, Damien Duff has been explaining his move to Fulham. He told The Telegraph:
“It was heartbreaking going down and the players didn’t know what was going on up there.
“In fairness it’s pulled the lads closer together and you can see that from the results of the first couple of games of the season.
“It was definitely the hardest period of my career. It didn’t work out, I wasn’t enjoying my football and I’ve had to move on.
“I thought it was a great move at the time and a lot of people agreed but it didn’t happen for me. That was the same for a lot of players.
“I played for four managers last season. That’s not a good base for any team to work well.
“But that’s no excuse, we went down and deserved to. There’s a lot of stability at Fulham, not just with the manager but in the team as well.
“It’s going to be tough to break into the side but as soon as I heard Fulham were interested it was a no-brainer to come here.”
According to The Mirror, we’re lining up Sheffield United’s Matthew Kilgallon as a potential replacement for Steven Taylor if he should leave. Apparently the centre-half is rated at around £2m and is also fancied by Celtic.
Alas that’s it for now – yesterday was what might be called a ‘slow news day’.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
Another good result – credit to Hughton, Calderwood and the players.
But…….
We’re still no further forward in bringing the type of stability that Damien Duff was talking about in his particular interview. Owner? Manager? Direction? Purpose?
Equally worrying is – we cannot sustain these results with a paper thin squad – and there is precious little time for anyone to address that, even if they were appointed today.