Press article:

Bez gives United Food for Thought - 30/08/2002

Newcastle United know that they will need to have the stomach for a fight when they open their Champions' League campaign against Dynamo Kiev on September 18. For John Beresford, the scourge of Kiev, today revealed the problems United had on their last visit to the Ukraine in 1997. The former United full-back said: "When Kenny Dalglish took us across to Kiev we went fully prepared. "We even took our own food, the sort of stuff footballers eat like pasta, chicken and steaks. We left all the food in the hands of a security guard who said he would look after it for us. "And what did he do? He stole the lot and sold it on the black market." However, this had no effect on Beresford, who scored twice as United, 2-0 down, came back to earn a creditable 2-2 draw in front of 100,000 fans. Beresford joked: "I scored with my right foot and my left and just to show how confident I was I even got one of my goals to deflect into the net off one of their full-backs. "That's the way to do it, and if Alan Shearer wants any advice on how to go about scoring then he knows where to get me!"

Beresford could do no wrong for United during that period. In the qualifier with Croatia Zagreb it was Beresford's two goals which saw United win 2-1, before Temuri Ketsbaia finished the job off in Croatia . But it was that night in Kiev which will always go down as the popular full-back's greatest day in a black and white shirt. And he added: "Sir Bobby Robson has a young team these days and it is important that they are not intimidated by 80,000 soldiers. "But Newcastle are fully capable of winning their three home games and this is the key to whether they go through or not. "Obviously, Juventus is the most attractive game but because Newcastle score goals they have always got a chance against anybody. "Their problem is stopping goals at the other end and this was something which was seen in the friendly with Barcelona earlier this month when they lost 3-0 at St James's Park. "The games in Europe are a lot slower than in the Premiership and United must be aware of that. "Because the game is so slow you start to think it is easy and you relax, and then before you know what is happening you are two or three goals down."

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