Weekend win justifies Keegans faith in his players

Mar 31 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

KEVIN Keegan believes Newcastle United’s 4-1 demolition of Tottenham Hotspur has justified his faith in his players as he insisted the club did not need to make radical changes in the summer despite this season’s flirt with relegation.

Keegan’s stringent backing of his under-performing players had begun to look misplaced as they lurched from one defeat to the next, sliding perilously close to the relegation zone.

But the supportive stance of Newcastle’s manager has been fully vindicated as they built on the four points gained against Birmingham and Fulham with arguably their best away performance in years as they totally out-classed their hosts.

And having challenged his players at the weekend to end the season with a flourish, Keegan has got his wish in spectacular fashion as he argued he would only need a few quality additions in the summer to be able to compete at the top end of the table again.

He said: “You dream about playing like that away from home and winning 4-1, and you dream about being three goals up with 10 minutes to play. But the reality in the Premier League is that it is difficult to get into those situations. But we thoroughly deserved it. We’re looking at a 4-1 win here and it could have been seven or eight. We hit the bar and the post, and Paul Robinson made two terrific saves. It was a really good performance.

“We’re a small squad but there’s an awful lot of quality in there. It’s not going to be a case of wholesale changes this summer, we don’t need that. What we need is two or three quality additions – but they have to be quality.

“Sometimes the quality gets lost a little bit if you get on a bad run, but I’ve never doubted the ability of the players I have here. Suddenly, when they start to play like that, you think, ‘We don’t need a lot to set us along’. If we could add two or three big signings they would make a difference, but they would have to be very good players to improve what you’ve seen out there.”

This was easily the best performance since Keegan returned to the club and it was a result which has given the club the sort of momentum their manager craves.

But it was also a result which will have brought the smile back to the

face of anyone who has endured Newcastle’s recent trials and tribulations. Owner Mike Ashley looked ecstatic in the away end, chairman Chris Mort looked thrilled in the directors’ box, while directors of football and recruitment Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez left White Hart Lane with an obvious spring in their steps.

As for the supporters, after a dreadful season in which their club has been so widely mocked and regularly ridiculed, this was finally the ammunition they needed to force some silence.

Keegan said: “We worked very hard, but we also played with confidence. Confidence comes from results but, to be honest, I think the turning point was the Blackburn defeat. Strangely enough, we played fantastic that day even though we lost 1-0 and the players knew that if we could get anywhere near those standards week in, week out we wouldn’t have a problem in this league. Since then, we’ve looked a pretty decent side. We’ve played some good football.

“We really shouldn’t be where we are, but we are. Now the players are doing something about it. We’ve shown that resolve twice now in the last three games because we also went a goal behind against Birmingham but came back to get something.”

And Keegan was, as has always been his style, particularly impressed again with his attacking trio of Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins and Mark Viduka. He said: “You only have to look at our defensive record, not just since I’ve been here, to see that it’s no good us playing and trying to hold on to something. That puts pressure on your defenders, because they know they have to try to get a clean sheet just to get anything.

“I think our defenders know when I put this team out that maybe they can concede a goal like they did against Spurs and probably still have enough to win a football match. In the past, maybe they conceded a goal and thought that was it.” And although there was a warning that, with six games left to play, Newcastle are still not certain of their Premier League safety, even that small matter of mathematics could not quell his excitement.

Keegan added: “We’re definitely not safe yet, but this means we can start looking up not down again. We could catch Spurs up the way things look now, and we could also catch West Ham. Three or four weeks ago, people would have said that was ridiculous. We have three home games left and three away and, playing like this, I think the players will look forward to each and every one of them. The confidence has come back.”