Wayne Routledge wants to capitalise on opportunity
Aug 28 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal
Wayne Routledge has been searching for a football club he can call home his whole career. He told chief sports writer Luke Edwards why he believes he has finally found one at Newcastle United.
THE only problem with beating teams 6-0 is that whatever comes the following weekend tends to be a letdown. The thrashing of Aston Villa was something to celebrate, yet it is also something which needs to be built on.
When Newcastle travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers this afternoon they could quite easily be brought crashing back down to earth by a team which emerged, bruised, battered and bleeding from a successful fight against relegation last season.
At the start of the campaign these were the games Newcastle will have targeted, so if the humiliation of Aston Villa was a bonus, points from the trip to Molineux will be seen as far more routine.
Not that anything is assured in the Premier League, and the Magpies are just as likely to fly out of the Wolves lair with nothing to show for their efforts as they are with even just a share of the spoils.
After only one year out of the Premier League, it is Newcastle who will start the game as underdogs, although the win over Villa has given everyone fresh belief United’s return to the top flight will not be a fleeting one.
Routledge, whose pace and running on the right flank has already been a useful weapon in the top flight, said: “The result against Aston Villa has given everyone a lot of confidence, it was an unbelievable result.
“You work hard all week preparing for the game, but you do not get too many results like that.
“It could not have gone any better for us really. It is nice to win in that manner, no matter which division you are in, but it was important for us to get a home win under our belts quickly.
“We feel we belong in the Premier League, but we also have to prove we are good enough.
“We are here on merit after coming up as champions, but that result has given everyone a lot of self-belief. The trick with a result like that is to follow up.
“You do not want to get too carried away by it because we are two games into a very long season. We have another tough game against Wolves away from home, but the aim has got to be to take some points from that and build on what we did to Villa.” Routledge has flattered to deceive as a Premier League player ever since he was snapped up by Tottenham Hotspur as a promising teenager at Crystal Palace (pictured above), but he is determined to make the most of a fourth opportunity to impress at this level. At Tottenham, Routledge was sent out on loan to gain first-eam experience and was treated in much the same way at Aston Villa before landing at Newcastle via yet another stint in the Championship with Queens Park Rangers.
