Don’t take derby win as red, says Chris Hughton

Dec 19 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

CHRIS Hughton and Communism make unlikely bedfellows but, as he prepares to repel the invading red army from Teesside tomorrow, the Newcastle United manager has revealed his little-known contribution to the struggle for a ‘world socialist revolution’.

As you might expect, the mild-mannered and level-headed United boss has never been politically agitated enough to take up the Marxist cause but, as an up-and-coming young professional at Tottenham, he did pen a weekly column for The News Line, the newspaper of the British Workers Revolutionary Party.

It takes a lot to ruffle the virtually unflappable Hughton’s feathers but that memory managed to.

“This was as a very young man, they had a football column in the paper. It was my first venture into journalism and my last. It was for a short period of time and it was actually someone I knew who was associated with the paper,” he said.

“It was an opportunity at that stage and something different. It was quite some years ago shall we say but it’s true. I wasn’t politically involved with it, it was purely football. I was aware of what the paper was but the bigger interest for me was, as a young man, it was quite nice to have my own column. I don’t think many people read it though.

“It was nice at the time. Did I try to get Spurs to play in red? Something like that.”

Hughton’s first foray into the world of journalism might not have been particularly memorable, but his first full season in charge of Newcastle is proving pretty momentous.

Victory in tomorrow’s Tyne-Tees derby will see United sign off for Christmas in style, but Hughton is wary of taking anything for granted against wounded Middlesbrough. They have lost back-to-back games, but the United chief believes that makes it a more difficult game for his side – figuring that their desire to atone for poor performances will give them extra motivation.

“It’s more difficult for that reason, and their form away from home has been good on the back of a 5-1 win at QPR, and there won’t be many team who do that there,” he said.

“Not everything about them is despondent at the moment. I saw them against Cardiff and they should have got something and the scoreline wasn’t a reflection of the performance.

“They’re certainly not playing badly, so they’re dangerous.”