Sheffield Wednesday 2, Newcastle United 2

Dec 28 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

FOR all the sober warnings delivered by Chris Hughton and all the stark messages scrawled on white boards dotted around the club’s training ground, nothing will warn Newcastle United against the perils of complacency better than afternoons like this.

Forget ‘promotion’, ‘record points totals’ or worrying about what happens when they return to the Premier League – complacency is the buzz word you will be hearing plenty of over the next five months.

It is the elephant in the corner of the room for United, and there is plenty of reason to fear its insidious advance on a squad which has gone about the challenge of reclaiming top- flight status with nothing other than ruthless professionalism so far.

United’s players and management will repeat the fact nothing has been won yet like a mantra over the next few weeks and months, but difficult days like this one put flesh on those bones and keep everyone’s expectations in check.

Yes, the Championship is nothing more than a regulation workout for a side loaded with goal-scorers and pedigree defenders – but complacency will chip away at the advantage they hold over their rivals.

Let it seep into the black and white bone marrow over the next few weeks and there will be more chastening experiences like this – United having been chased and harried all over the pitch by a team which had gone more than six hours without a goal before the champions-elect rolled up.

As is the way with a Newcastle side which revels in its resilience, they squeezed a point out of a difficult afternoon – but even that acceptable outcome could not take the edge off the disappointment.

The players will be grateful for a chance to atone this evening, although Derby County’s flat-lining form should not be seen as any great encouragement by the home side.

After all, Wednesday have not toasted victory for ten games but were within a whisker of doing so on Saturday.

That is not to say complacency was the sole reason for this unedifying Boxing Day spectacle – although the way United began the second half suggested a belief that perhaps the hard work had been done after Kevin Nolan and Shola Ameobi dredged wonder goals from the mediocrity.

Hughton missed the authority of the absent Alan Smith in the centre of midfield, and it was hard not to suppose as Wednesday began to rain balls in United’s box that he would have helped cut out that supply line long before Sean McAuley’s hard-working side began to pepper Steve Harper’s goal.

Smith, rested with one eye on the Derby visit, will be back to wreck the dreams of opposition attackers tonight and his return will come not a minute too soon.

He has become vital, particularly to United’s away strategy of slowly suffocating their opponents’ creativity.

The manager probably should have turned to Andy Carroll earlier, too.

Although Marlon Harewood dove-tailed brilliantly with the prolific Shola Ameobi for about half an hour in the first half, their influence waned in the second half. Carroll, by contrast, made an immediate impact and his involvement today should be more prolonged than the 15 minute cameo he got at Hillsborough.

What is certain is that Hughton will demand a better start than the limp effort United came up with in South Yorkshire. Players had been given Christmas Day off as a gesture of goodwill, but for 15 minutes it looked like they had decided to extend that break into Boxing Day.