Yorke And Cole Expect Tough Magpies Test

We sat down with Treble winners Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole to look ahead to Wednesday’s trip to St James’ Park to face Newcastle…

What kind of game can we expect on Wednesday night?
Andy Cole: It’ll be a tough match – it’s always tough up there. Newcastle will be up for it and their crowd will be up for it. Forget some of their recent results, they’ve got a Geordie in charge of the team until the end of the season and they’ll be buoyed by a decent result last weekend. It’ll be a difficult match.

Newcastle are one of those unpredictable teams, aren’t they?
Dwight Yorke: Yes, the word is inconsistent when it comes to Newcastle, but United coming to town means they will raise their game. John Carver will be firing his boys up as it’s a scalp teams always look to try to get. We can expect a difficult and close game, but I’m sure United will be confident away from home.

Andy, you know all about playing there and how intense the atmosphere can be…
Yes, absolutely. Regardless of how Newcastle are playing, you know that when United go up there, the fans will get behind their team. We’ve had some tough games there, some good results and some indifferent results, so you know what to expect. As people always say, a good set of fans are your 12th man and you’ll see that at St James’ Park come Wednesday.

The race for the top four is tighter than ever – will it go right to the wire?
AC: It’s definitely going to be tough – I’m not going to sit here and try to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. Liverpool are on a fantastic run, Arsenal have picked up but Southampton have fallen away a little bit. At this moment in time, it looks like it’s us, Arsenal and Liverpool fighting it out for two places. We’ve got both of them to play – Liverpool away and Arsenal at home, as well as City and Chelsea.

We’ve got a tough run-in but, if our form can pick up and we can get a few wins, we can try to cement our position.

At this stage of the season, do results come ahead of performances?
DY: Ideally, you want both but it’s all about getting in the Champions League for us. It doesn’t matter how we do it as long as we get there. It’s been a difficult season but we’re in a position to kick on. There are some difficult games ahead but, with the players we have, we should be able to qualify and, yes, it’s about getting the results when it matters. This club has always risen to the occasion when it’s needed to, so expect the same.

March and April are always big months in the season, as you’ve experienced many times in the past. What’s the best way to approach the challenge and is it important to thrive on the pressure?
AC: We’re used to it. We had an uncanny knack of coming strong in the second half of the season. It’s the business end of the season and we had a great way of really putting our foot down. Hopefully, this United team will be able to do that and get the results we need. It’s about going out there, playing with no fear and playing like Manchester United, with real galvanising, attacking football and scoring goals.

Credit: manutd.com