Hughton: We will sign new striker in January

Dec 29 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

CHRIS Hughton last night confirmed he will definitely sign a striker in the January transfer window – even if Marlon Harewood does not return to St James’ Park following the end of his loan spell.

For once this season, Newcastle lacked a clinical touch in front of goal during a frustrating goalless draw with Derby County as a bright start degenerated into a poor second-half performance.

Hughton is adamant he has not ruled out the possibility Harewood will return on loan for the rest of the season, but Aston Villa are keen to sell a player who will be out of contract in the summer rather than lose him for nothing at the end of the campaign.

That is likely to be a significant stumbling block in the negotiations over the next few days, although the Magpies will hope a permanent deal for Sheffield United’s Matthew Kilgallon is rather more straightforward to complete.

“We are still making decisions about what to do in the transfer window, but I have never said that Marlon will not be coming back here,” said Hughton, who insisted his side had played far worse at St James’ this season and won. “When you look at Marlon he got better and better in the period of time he was here.

“If you look at it, we have lost a centre-back and a striker in (Zurab) Khizanishvili and Harewood, so they are the two areas we will look to strengthen when the

window opens. We are still looking at it and we will make our decision in private. We still have to decide who the personnel will be but we will add two players to the squad.”

Despite the disappointment of two draws over the Christmas period, Hughton is still satisfied with the club’s position at the top of the table. Their lead over West Bromwich Albion has been cut from ten points to six, but United’s manager was happy to accept that position going into 2010.

He said: “If you look back would we have been happy to be in this position at this stage of the season and the answer is yes. We know we have got some tough times ahead, there are a lot of teams behind us pushing very hard to catch us, but we just have to maintain what we have had in the first half of the season in the second half.

“We have a disappointed and frustrated dressing room, but the reality is we have gone 11 games unbeaten, it was a pretty good performance, we have kept another clean sheet and we have not lost another game at St James’ Park.”

Newcastle should have been in front early in the first half but failed to take a succession of good chances in front of goal with Ryan Taylor, Andy Carroll and Steven Taylor all guilty of missing ones they should have converted over the course of the 90 minutes.

Hughton added: “We have played a lot worse than that at St James’ Park this season and still won. We had a number of good chances in the game but we have failed to put those chances away.

“If we had put one of them away I believe we would have gone on to get a second one.

“We are a little disappointed with the last two games. Because of the standards we have set ourselves we expected to take more from these two games, particularly after coming off the 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday.

“But that is what the Championship is all about. We have come up against a very spirited Derby side but on the balance of play, considering the chances we had and the amount of possession we had, we should have won the game.”

Rams boss Nigel Clough was delighted with the result and his side’s performance, although mystified by the boos which greeted inspirational skipper Robbie Savage.

He said: “For some reason – I don’t understand it – he gets booed at every single ground we come to. I have never quite figured that out.

“I don’t quite get it because I think football supporters should recognise sometimes what an honest and wholehearted player he is.”