'It’s vital we build momentum'

Apr 29 2008 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

THE focus might be shifting towards Kevin Keegan’s summer recruitment drive, but goalkeeper Steve Harper insists Newcastle’s current players have a huge responsibility to end the campaign well and give the club momentum going into next season.

After having their cover blown during the Luka Modric saga last week, with the Croatian international snubbing United’s advances to sign for Tottenham, the club’s transfer plans have become the hot topic at St James’s Park.

Manchester City skipper Richard Dunne is the latest name on Keegan’s radar, with Newcastle poised to move for their number one defensive target if he doesn’t sign a new deal at Eastlands. Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell is another Premier League player being lined up by United. The club are also keen to tie up new deals for some of the players who have played a key role in United’s return to form, including Steven Taylor, Obafemi Martins and, of course, Michael Owen.

With such important work going on behind the scenes it would be easy to lose sight of the fact United have two games remaining this season – but not for goalkeeper Harper.

He feels that the visit of title-chasing Chelsea is a crucial test of the improvement made over the last eight weeks, and believes remaining unbeaten against two sides in the top five can give the team added impetus over the summer.

“It’s all about momentum for us now – we want to take something into next season,” he said. “The last seven games have gone well for us – four wins and three draws and we’re unbeaten. It’s been a nice feeling.

“But Chelsea is a bit of a yardstick for us to see just how far we really have come. We’ll be going up against a team with some superstar players who are going for the title who may well be in the Champions League final by then. But we’ll be have 52,000 screaming us on and I’m sure we’ll give them a good game.

“Chelsea is a massive game – it’s nice to have a say in what happens in the Premier League but, in all honesty, I’m not too bothered who wins the title, it’s about going out and doing the best for our club. Chelsea had a big win on Saturday, they’ll play again on Wednesday and we’ll see how they are when they play us on Monday.

“Manchester United have got West Ham at the weekend and it might be that they (Chelsea) need to win to go on and win the title. I think we drew 0-0 at our place near the end of last season but they’ve got a big game in the week, while we’ve got nine days to recover.

“There were a few people in the dressing room after West Ham on Saturday with stitches and tired legs – we’re not used to the heat in London – and we’ve got time to recover.”

Even though he sees Chelsea as the litmus test for United, Harper is realistic about the amount of progress the side have made.

Clearly, the side has toughened up – as seen from the players’ reaction after going two down at Upton Park – but their seven-game unbeaten run came against teams outside the Premier League’s Big Four. Harper is savvy enough to know there is still much work to be done to get them back among the contenders for Europe, even though he is happy at the rate of progress.

“Two or three months ago we were conceding a goal and then conceding two or three. We threatened to do that on Saturday but we feel we have come a long way,” he said. “But we’re not kidding ourselves, we’ve got a long way to go. It is a nice sign, though, that we managed to put right the wrongs on Saturday.

“We were lucky to go in at half-time at 2-2 but we know we’ve got goals in us and we’ll take the point. We’ve had a really good run – we were looking to get a good lead and get the fans on their back. A couple of weeks ago we’d have been beaten by three or four. But credit to the lads we fought back and got ourselves into it, which is a sign of the character.”