Peter Beardsley, one of the best players ever to play for Newcastle United, has been comparing today’s seemingly solid side to the one of 10 years ago under Kevin Keagan, which is often referred to as the Entertainers.
Obviously the sides are very different, and Peter explains how.
Peter Beardsley – the two sides are very different – but St James’ Park is a fortress again
Peter told the Journal this morning:
“They are very different sides in a lot of respects, but the one thing they have in common is that they both turned St James’s Park into a bit of a fortress,â€
“When Kevin was here, teams hated coming to St James’s Park and Sam is getting things like that again. It’s very important that every team in the Premier League hates coming up here because it eases the pressure on you away from home if you are winning your home games.â€
“The thing with Sam is he made Bolton a hard place to go. Teams always knew it was going to be really tough to get anything at the Reebok Stadium and he is trying to do the same at St James’.â€
“We look confident at home and capable of beating anyone who comes up here. That is so important when you are trying to be successful.â€
Beardsley is also full of praise for the way in which Allardyce has completely transformed the club in such a short space of time. Sam has also changed the atmosphere at the club by bringing in 9 players who are not only confident but most are used to winning, and that’s what they want to continue to do at their new club.
Peter added:
“For me, the only blip this season has been the defeat at Derby. Manchester City have proved they are a top side and Arsenal in the Carling Cup, they are an excellent side, but anything could have happened and we could have won it on the night if Obafemi Martins had taken one of his chances. I think what Sam has done in a short space of time is excellent.â€
“There has been a massive turnover in players, which there always is under a new manager, but particularly in terms of what Glenn left when he went.
“If you look at the back four, it’s completely different to last season. To have settled so quickly is brilliant and, without trying to put Sam under pressure, I think people are looking at Newcastle and thinking they are a top-six side.
“I almost would be surprised if they weren’t, we look organized and we have a great situation where players like Steven Taylor, who was a regular last season, cannot even make the bench against Tottenham.
“There is great competition for places again all over the team. There are a lot of good players in the squad. If people were skeptical about Sam before, they are sure now that he is the right man.â€
Things are on the up at Newcastle. There’s just no doubt about that. But let’s insert a little warning here. We were doing really great before we played Derby County and every fan was wondering how much we’d beat them by. As we now know we produced the worst performance of the season when lots of players just didn’t turn up – shades of last season.
We cannot do that against Reading on Saturday and hopefully the lads have learned from the Derby game, that every match we play in we have to try to get all 3 points. It’s a challenge for us but a win at Reading looks very possible. If we can do that then Newcastle will be buzzing again, like in the days under Kevin Keagan.
For those of you who would like reminded of just how great Peter Beardsley was – and haven’t yet seen this – here’s a wonderful video of some of Peter’s exploits. Peter was great, that’s for sure.
Comments welcome.
13 comments so far
indian toon
Oct 25, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Comment #1sam is the right man as long as he keeps us in the top six, if he fails to do that next season . defo he’l lget the chop. nufc always crave for success.. cmon its about time we got some silverware..
indian toon
Oct 25, 2007 at 10:55 AM
Comment #2MR ED.. how bout highlighting our next 3 fixtures as they are of utmost importance andwinnable against reading portsmouth and the mackems.. there are 9 points to be taken as we are playin portsmouth at home. anything other than 7 points will be dissapointing…
Brisbane Mag
Oct 25, 2007 at 10:55 AM
Comment #3Yep, no doubt about it; Peter the Great Beardsley was a fantastic player.
BSA has rebuilt the team, but had to or we’d be relegated after the Souness and Roeder dark days. Not that I’m blaming Roeder; he was a good acadamy boss; just not a PL manager…….
ToonKing
Oct 25, 2007 at 10:58 AM
Comment #4if we don’t make top6 and Sam gets sacked i’ll go mental. Sam is the right man for us but u can’t expect such a massive improvement in on season, he needs to be given a minimum of 2-3 years and then i’m 100% confident he will get us in the top 4.
indian toon
Oct 25, 2007 at 10:59 AM
Comment #5dear sir, i meant for the coming season..
ToonKing
Oct 25, 2007 at 11:13 AM
Comment #6oh….ok then…my bad…. 😉
gordon
Oct 25, 2007 at 12:01 PM
Comment #7what a load of indian post rubbish,its comments like that which make nufc into a laughing stock.
andyw
Oct 25, 2007 at 12:16 PM
Comment #8The speed of feet and speed of mind made Peter Beardsley a truly gifted player (better than Ronaldo I would say). Add to that his work rate and courage (he took some horrible knocks) which the video doesn’t show and you have what I think is/was NUFCs greatest ever player – probably one of Liverpool’s too.
When the footballing gods made Peter, they broke the mould.
indian toon
Oct 25, 2007 at 1:19 PM
Comment #9do we see racism here…!?
Bw positive
Oct 25, 2007 at 2:14 PM
Comment #10I back you up 100% Indian Toon 🙂 Ignore that muppet Gordon ! What you spoke echoed my exact sentiments, and whilst im an optimist im also a realist. Gordon, if your a toon fan then you should take a hard think about what you said, for more than one reason ! 7 points out of those 9, is a realistic target and by realistic I mean that our own management will have that set ! We are on the up, pessimists dont belong in this club, never have !
Bw positive
Oct 25, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Comment #11Infact, im pretty sure Gordon is a mackem. Only such people can be so ignorant.
Punk Skunk
Oct 25, 2007 at 2:54 PM
Comment #12Bang on andyw, my sentiments exactly bro’!..
…Pedro was the greatest!..Howay the Lads!..
Bill f
Oct 25, 2007 at 4:06 PM
Comment #13There was an element of surprise when Keegan took over in the EPL as he introduced quite a few foreign players. More than the other teams had at the time raising the standard of our lot. Also he was prepared to splash out on Big Al, which I thought was one hell of a gamble and had my doubts about. I was glad to be wrong and we should have had at least one Title. They were great times though for all that. Aah if only, sigh!!