Newcastle United 3, Swansea City 0
Nov 30 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal
It was understandable that Hughton's men stepped off the gas but unforgivable all the same. United's normally collected manager couldn't mask his irritation and with reason – could you imagine their ruthless promotion rivals West Bromwich Albion doing the same? Their heavy defeats of Middlesbrough and more recently Sheffield Wednesday suggest not. And it remains a worry in the boardroom too, where Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias might yet come to the accountant's conclusion that this promotion lark is so easy they can probably afford to flog a bit more of the family silver and still romp home in pole position.
Nothing could be further from the truth, but Llambias' programme notes again laid bare his acute misreading of the mood on Tyneside. It is a positive development that he has opened a channel of communication with supporters but his justification of the decision to sell naming rights for St James' Park simply didn't wash. Name-checking and quoting Barry Moat was particularly ill-advised.
We can only hope that skewed logic isn't applied during January. There were top flight scouts in attendance again on Saturday – struggling Wolves just one club checking on the progress of top scorer Kevin Nolan and midfield general Alan Smith – but United must resist the temptation to sell. The fact that Hughton was ringing around Premier League clubs desperately trying to beg a centre-back on Thursday is a further illustration of the lack of depth in the squad. United look serene with Coloccini and Taylor manning the defence but if either of them goes down, the cracks that emerged during their last spell without either of them may re-appear.
Llambias got one thing spot on, though. The continued unity between the support and the players is absolutely crucial to the club's continued success.
Again there were more than 40,000 at St James' Park, again they offered loud and lusty support to a team that is feeding off the positivity on the terraces.
Rarely scintillating but with a couple of extra gears to move through if needed – this ultimately comfortable victory over the Championship's in-form side was a neat summary of United's season so far.
