Bassong's displays help spirit in United camp

Dec 1 2008 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

THE speed of Sebastien Bassong’s progress from peripheral squad player to key member of the team has surprised the Newcastle management, says Chris Hughton.

With Joe Kinnear leaving the Riverside after the game for a pressing engagement, his deputy stood in at the post-match Press conference – meaning there was no explanation from the Newcastle boss of his decision to substitute Obafemi Martins rather than the largely ineffectual Michael Owen.

And Hughton, who can take equal credit for the defensive improvement which has seen Newcastle keep back-to-back clean sheets, chose to emphasise the positives as United earned a point in their fight against the drop. Chief among those was the performance of Bassong, the unheralded £300,000 summer signing who improves his reputation every time he plays.

Hughton said: “Every week we look a bit more resilient, a bit more solid and a bit more confident. That’s what we’ve had in the last couple of games.

“Sebastien has come off the back of two very good performances – he played well again. We brought him in in the summer and he’s a very good centre-half who can play left-back.

“When he came in we felt he was just underneath what we already had. We needed to lift the quality of what we had, but his progress has been a lot quicker than what we thought. You could say he’s surprised us. There can be a risk throwing a young player into the kind of environment we’ve been faced with, but Sebastien has thrived. It’s a welcome surprise.

“With any young player, particularly when we’ve had periods when things haven’t done well, there’s trepidation around the place – are they going to do well, are they experienced and confident enough? But the reality is that you only know when you put them in. He has certainly risen to the challenge.”

In a game short on goalmouth incident, the reaction of Martins to his late substitution emerged as one of the talking points. Martins was upset at being taken off – justifiably given Owen’s marginal contribution – but hurling his wristband to the floor and storming down the tunnel with scant acknowledgement of Kinnear suggested discontent in the camp.

“Oba was okay after the game. You want the players to be disappointed at coming off,” Hughton said. “What we have is that little bit more competition for places that we’ve been striving for.

“Will he be punished? Any issues that way are always dealt with in-house.”

Hughton insisted he is not worried about the form of Owen, who was quiet throughout. We know Michael Owen’s qualities. We’re not worried at all about his form.

“He’s part of a team effort and, by our standards, we are on a good run. The most important thing coming into this game was to keep a clean sheet.”