Chris Hughton proud to take up United job

Oct 26 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

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CHRIS Hughton has described his impending appointment as Newcastle United’s permanent manager as one of the greatest moments of his life after the Magpies scraped a 2-1 win over Doncaster Rovers.

Hughton has all but agreed a contract until the end of the season with the option of another year if Mike Ashley has still not managed to sell the club, and will sign it this week following a brief delay in getting the paperwork done last week.

As revealed in The Journal on Friday, Ashley – who has broken off negotiations with an American consortium fronted by Geoff Sheard – will not take the club off the market at this stage, although a new round of talks with Barry Moat over the weekend has not broken the deadlock.

Sources close to the deal have once again claimed those talks will continue at the start of this week, although the club insisted last night they had no comment to make regarding any progress in the discussions with Moat – who sat in front of Ashley in the directors’ box at St James’s Park on Saturday.

In the meantime, Hughton (right), who was the first black player to represent the Republic of Ireland, will continue to work towards promotion after Kevin Nolan’s injury-time winner brought the Magpies their first win in five games at the end of another disjointed performance against Doncaster.

He said: “I am massively proud. I spent a long time at Spurs, which is a great football club, and this is a great football club. How many teams are going to play Doncaster, with respect to Doncaster, and have 43,000?

“I’m pretty confident that, if we manage to stay at the right end of the table, we will be approaching a full house this season.

“This club gets under your skin massively, the club and the people. I’ve had great responses from everybody from day one, even in the difficult periods.

“I know the way I’m perceived possibly changes when I become full-time manager and there will be a little bit more pressure, but it will be an incredibly proud moment for me – as proud as any other moment in my career.

“My priority has been to get these games out of the way. There is an offer there and I want to be manager of this football club. I expect it to be done in days. I’m quite sure it will be done.”

Hughton’s appointment has divided opinion. Although the vast majority of fans would have preferred to see Alan Shearer as manager, they recognise Hughton has made the best out of a difficult situation.

Nevertheless, the former Spurs man desperately needed a win against Doncaster, and he admitted his team had been fortuitous to get it after the away team missed a second-half penalty and the home side had ended the contest with ten men following Zurab Khizanishvili’s controversial sending-off.

He said: “I thought we deserved it overall. I know they missed a penalty, but there is no better feeling than when you come from behind and score a goal in the last moments when down to ten men.

“We’ve gone through all the emotions. The first-half performance wasn’t good and they scored with their only chance. They were good in possession and always threatened.

“Andy (Carroll) missed a chance he would have put away nine times out of ten and you possibly think it’s not going to be your day. Then you get a goal and think you will go on to win the game.

“Then came the penalty and it’s not going to be your day, a sending-off and it’s not our day – but it was our day in the end and we needed that.”

Hughton again praised the spirit in the United camp as he promised to appeal against Khizanishvili’s dismissal for grabbing Billy Sharp around the neck as he shoved Tamas Kadar.

Hughton added: “The sense of unity in the squad is something I’ve encouraged.

“We know we’ve got quality in the squad and we’ve tweaked it occasionally, but they’ve worked very hard on the spirit and I think that shows when you get a winner as late as we did.”

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