Chris Hughton backing his top scorer Kevin Nolan

Feb 16 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

CHRIS Hughton has rebuffed talk of handing top scorer Kevin Nolan a break from the punishing Championship promotion race – insisting he has not even thought about dropping the midfielder.

Nolan has been a key member of Hughton’s table-topping side but both Hughton and the player himself admitted he was somewhat out of sorts as Newcastle snatched a largely undeserved point at Swansea.

The 27-year-old (pictured right) has played more times than any other member of Hughton’s squad this season and some put his diminished influence down to the inevitable wear of tear that follows a second tier schedule that regularly throws up two games in the space of a week.

Pointing to Opta statistics that show Nolan covered just as much ground as he had done earlier in the season, Hughton rejected that talk and put Saturday’s performance down to a “bad day at the office”. The former Bolton man looks set to be named in the team to face Coventry tomorrow night – and the Newcastle boss reckons he could prove a match winner again.

“It wasn’t one of his better games, but the stats show he did as much running as he normally does,” he said.

“His physical contribution was no different but as with every player, there are ups and downs in form.

“Kevin Nolan is very capable of turning his next game into one of his better ones.

“ He’s been a big, big player for us.

“Apart from his actual contribution to the team has scored a lot of goals.

“I have other options and you have to have that. But have I thought about resting Kevin? The answer is no because he’s a big player and valuable player.