Hughton frustrated at second half display

Nov 30 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

NEWCASTLE United boss Chris Hughton hailed his side for building further momentum in their Championship promotion push – but couldn’t hide his frustration at their second half display.

United blew apart Swansea City with three unanswered goals in the first half an hour before allowing the Jacks to run the show in the second period.

It is a measure of the high standards that they have set for themselves that Hughton was able to nit-pick in the aftermath of a 3-0 win but his warning that a similar drop may be punished in future was a sound one. And he tempered his criticism with praise for the midfield delivery and clinical finishing that helped United maintain their lead at the top of the Championship.

“We’ve got good momentum at the moment and that makes a big difference. Winning becomes a habit,” he said, “You sometimes get a little bit disappointed because you want everything and at 3-0 up I felt we didn’t do well enough in the second half. On another occasion, we might not get away with it.

“But I generally feel that if the score is 0-0 at half-time, I don’t think we get that second-half performance. We’ve produced some really good finishes recently, and we’ve been helped by some really good delivery. That hasn’t always been the case. We’ve had periods of the season where we’d have liked to have made things a bit more comfortable for ourselves, but they’ve ended up being quite scrappy wins.

“If you ask anybody in my position, you want to win the game however you win it.” Hughton was happy with the contribution of loan man Marlon Harewood, and said he was unconcerned that he was obviously displeased at being replaced early in the second half.

“I would be very surprised if he was pleased to come off when he’s already scored two goals, but it was the right decision,” he said. “Marlon’s a lad that has got stronger and fitter in the time he has been here. He’d missed a big chunk of pre-season at Villa. He would have liked an opportunity to get a third, and that would probably have been fitting, but it’s about the team. I just felt we needed to freshen things up.”

Meanwhile, Hughton believes Steve Harper will be fit for the visit of Watford this weekend. The goalkeeper was replaced at half-time by Tim Krul after suffering back spasms in the defeat of Swansea. “My feeling is that Steve will be okay. He just felt his back, which was starting to stiffen up. It was the right decision to take him off,” Hughton said.