Last Updated: Tuesday 08 June 1999 14:05
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| Features > The Patrick Barclay Column |
'Never Mind The Mind Games - Newcastle Don't Have A Prayer At Wembley'
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ACCORDING to the local paper in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Ruud Gullit has fired the first shot in a psychological battle with Alex Ferguson. Looking ahead to Saturday's FA Cup Final, Gullit claimed it was to Newcastle's advantage that they had ended the Premiership season "not playing very well".
He put it mildly. While their Wembley opponents Manchester United sped down the season's final straight to the title, Newcastle lost concentration and went through the motions in a way that has alarmed their fans, not to say cheated them.
Perhaps this can be taken as a good omen, however. The Magpies have a record of going to finals in good heart only to flop on the big day. In 1974, Malcolm Macdonald made the mistake of shouting the odds within earshot of Liverpool, who beat them resoundingly on one of Kevin Keegan's glory afternoons.
Then last year, fans who fancied their chances of upsetting Arsenal's Double plans were aghast at the ultra-cautious approach chosen by Kenny Dalglish, who left Alan Shearer isolated at the front, virtually handing the match to the grateful Londoners. Newcastle's first half performance that day was an embarrassment to their supporters. That they got slightly better as the match wore on is irrelevant, like praising Blackburn's fighting spirit in their match against Manchester United a week ago when their capitulation against Nottingham Forest a few days earlier had already virtually guaranteed them the drop. In any case, Arsenal hardly needed to stretch themselves to win, and any Gunners fan who had anticipated a nail-biting climax to the Double hunt must have left Wembley with cuticles intact.
Will it be any different under Gullit? Though surely a lesson had been learned, the Dutchman seemed to be stretching a point threadbare when he argued: "Manchester United do not know who we are going to play - and they don't know how we are going to play."
The temptation is to reflect that Manchester United probably don't care a great deal, hence a professional if uninspired performance roughly equivalent to Sunday's against Tottenham would almost certainly do the trick, even if Newcastle were to rediscover the very best form they have shown this season. Frankly, even if Gullit has a potential man of the match in midfielder Dietmar Hamann, his defence will be pushed to cope with whoever Ferguson picks from a four-man array of quality strikers.
Nor, despite Roy Keane's unedifying title celebrations, can Manchester United be expected to manifest a hangover at Wembley. They have been too consistent for too long to let their Treble vision slip easily.
All in all, I suspect the best pre-match tactic Gullit could choose would be modesty. And, as far as entering a psychological battle with the master of that art is concerned, the best advice would be... don't.
Any Manchester United or Newcastle fans wanting a chance to win tickets to Saturday's FA Cup Final should go to page five |
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