Wayne Routledge is given a stage to shine on

Feb 9 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

One of the problems with Newcastle this season has been the lack of balance to the side with the majority of their attacking play coming down the left flank, where Jonas Gutierrez and Jose Enrique have excelled.

But Routledge’s arrival on the opposite flank makes the Magpies far less predictable, and enables them to stretch congested Championship midfields and packed defences.

Hughton deserves credit for spotting that deficiency in his squad and while he knows Newcastle will not always be able to attack with the same ferocity as they did against Cardiff, he hopes they will be more of a handful in open play with Routledge on board.

He said: “He’s a versatile player. Although

predominantly a right sided player and at times an old-fashioned right winger, he can play infield, he can play on the left, he can play off the front so I think he will give us a variety in his game.

“But, generally, he is an all-round player now whereas perhaps, when he was young, he was seen as an out and out right winger.

“I think he is a player who can come inside, as we saw with the goals he provided the other night.

“He is able to drift into other areas and affect the game from there as well.

“With Wayne, he is a lad that has played a lot of football already this season and he put in a lot of good performances at QPR, so he is one we didn’t expect to take too long to settle.”

United’s win over Cardiff stretched their unbeaten run to 15 games and broke a club record which had stood for 60 years, although Hughton was unimpressed by historical statistics ahead of tonight’s trip to Derby County.

He added: “At this moment records do not mean anything to me. The only thing that means anything is maintaining where we are, and we all know what our goal is this season. The most important thing is achieving that.

“Perhaps you look back and review the season and enjoy those moments then, but at this moment there is a lot of pressure on us.

“There are a group of teams below us that are pushing very hard and will continue to push hard.

“We have to make sure we continue to be focused.”