Keep it tight - - The official of John Beresford

Keep it tight - 19/09/2002

Good days!

It’s bring back fond memories when I see Newcastle take on Kiev tonight, but it’s not going to be easy. Apart from what actually happens on the pitch, the lads will probably face a few other challenges.

In anticipation of the lack of ‘appropriate’ food, we took all our food over to Kiev. However, after leaving it with the hotel’s security people – it all went missing and we later found out it had been sold!! Some of the bed sheets in the hotel were full of fleas, and we had to go out and but new bedding – and this was one of the best hotels in the City!

When it came to the game, the match kicked off and the pace was very slow. Then suddenly it would explode, keeping your concentration was the key but before we knew it, we were two goals down. Our strength was in getting forward, and I always fancied our chances of scoring. However with only about ten minutes on the clock, time was running out. I took the ball from a throw in and hit it from outside the box; 2-1. A few minutes later a hit another one this time it deflected off one of their players and we’d drawn level.

Tonight’s game plan will be to keep it rally tight for the first 20 minutes. Conceding an early goal will make the task so much more difficult, especially after the last couple of games we’ve had. I don’t think this side is as good as the one we played and I don’t think they’ll fancy Kieron Dyer, Craig Bellamy, and Laurent Robert running at them. But the whole team will have to work as a more unified unit and the attack minded midfield will have to help out the defence. If this is done, then I really fancy us getting something out of the game. If so, it’ll be a great confidence boost which will set us up nicely for the next few games – not to mention Saturday’s game against Sunderland.