Hughton will harness his attacking arsenal

Feb 17 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

CHRIS Hughton has reaffirmed his desire to turn Newcastle United into a free-flowing, attacking side again - just so long as they retain the resilience that has seen them set the Championship promotion pace.

United are back at St James’ Park to take on Coventry City tonight in their first home game since the scintillating 5-1 demolition of Cardiff.

That contest was notable for United’s attacking abandon as the naturally conservative Hughton sent out a team with two quick wingers to supply the bullets for Andrew Carroll and substitute Peter Løvenkrands to run riot.

It was a result and performance that excited the Newcastle support but that enthusiasm has been undermined by a couple of disappointing away displays, which saw Hughton reel in some of their attacking instincts to cope with in-form opponents.

With the returning Jonás Gutiérrez likely to operate in tandem with speedy winger Wayne Routledge, the Newcastle boss is ready to take the shackles off again for the visit of the in-form Sky Blues, who have gone five games without a defeat.

“What we want to be able to do is play a good, free-flowing passing game. That’s what you want and it’s nice if you can do it,” said Hughton.

“I know what the supporters want to see but that’s any supporters of any team, I think. We were delighted a couple of weeks ago that we were able to give the supporters that on the Friday against Cardiff. That is the ideal.

“Of course, what’s more important than that is winning games. We have to maintain where we are and would I have

performances like that and get a draw or would I get a scrappy win? It would be a win.

“But if we can do that by playing free-flowing football then great, that is what we would like to do. We do have wingers in Wayne Routledge and Jonás Gutiérrez in particular that are capable of producing that. It’s very nice to see it when it happens.”