Cup shows a shift in balance of power in the North East

Sep 24 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

The contrasting fortunes of the North East teams in the Carling Cup illustrates a shift of power in the region. Mark Douglas reports

PAINFUL as it may have been for the 2,000-odd Newcastle United supporters who crowded into the ramshackle away end at London Road, defeat in the Carling Cup exposed a painful truth – the club simply couldn’t afford a cup run this season.

United’s standing is now such that it takes only the slightest misfortune to befall one of their senior players and a serious shortcoming is exposed in their threadbare resources.

And when a club finds itself in that situation, the Carling Cup immediately transforms from a decent shot at Wembley glory into a meaningless, even damaging, irrelevance.

Chris Hughton has come in for some criticism from United’s support for his pragmatic approach, with accusations that he had devalued the club and short-changed fans by effectively conceding the game with his team selection for Tuesday’s tie.

But his mind was clearly made up the moment that Shola Ameobi cracked a bone in the victory over Huddersfield in the same competition last month – a needless injury during a win that, in the end, has proved pretty meaningless.

From that moment on, United youngsters like James Tavernier, Haris Vuckic, Ryan Donaldson and Ben Tozer were always going to get their chance in the third round – regardless of the fact that pretty much everyone inside St James’s Park recognises that they are still too raw at this stage.

That was the conclusion that was reached by Hughton a few weeks ago, and although it clearly pained United’s boss to see his youthful side battered in such a way by an average Peterborough side he believes he had no other choice.

It is a depressing view but one that had to be reached if United are to remain untroubled by injuries that could cripple their forward momentum.

“Of course I was disappointed to go out of the cup. We wanted to get through if we could but we cannot risk further injuries to important players because our squad isn’t big enough,” he told The Journal yesterday.