Joey Barton: We have shown we want to be in top flight

Aug 23 2010 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

AFTER the “irrelevance” of defeat at Old Trafford, Joey Barton said it was important Newcastle made a statement at St James’ Park yesterday.

The Magpies began life back in the Premier League with a sobering 3-0 defeat at Manchester United.

But the midfielder attached far greater importance to yesterday’s 6-0 win over Aston Villa, which extended the club’s unbeaten home run to 26 games in all competitions.

“We were not too bothered about the Man U defeat,” said Barton. “A lot of teams will go there and get beaten by more than that.

“We want to belong in the Premier League and the lads have shown how much they want it. We had a masterclass from (Paul) Scholes the other night but we bounced back.

“It was important for us to make a statement today.

“We were unbeaten at St James’ last season and we wanted to keep that ball rolling.

“There is no better start we could have had.

“Now we know we have to turn up for our next game at Wolves (away from home on Saturday) and put in another shift.”

It was Barton who opened the scoring for Newcastle after John Carew missed an early Villa penalty.

“They did not close me down enough and I hit it as hard as I could,” he recalled. “The ball moved a little bit and bent at the last minute.” Inevitably there was controversy for Barton to brush off, but he did so quickly.