Source: Daily_Mail
Andy Townsend's boot room: Shearer's team must use heads to stop Delap
Wanted: Big men, with brave hearts. For Newcastle at Stoke, this is no time to lose concentration. Watch out, chaps, here comes another long-range, Rory Delap throw-in screaming over at giants' height.
Okay, let's take this step by step. You can be paranoid about dealing with long throws. You can be scared and beaten before you start.
I remember playing for Aston Villa, when we had to deal with Tranmere's Dave Challinor in a League Cup tie. The whole pre-match build-up was about these long, scary throws. Get a head on the ball, get it away from your goal and they are not scary any more.
Stoke have scored nine goals from the unusual throwing style of Delap, when he whips the ball across from his hands, but if you have the players to come out and head the ball or to be ready to deal with the second ball from flick-ons, there are no surprises.
Sometimes the flicks might come off one of your players, but the key is, if you lose the first ball, just be on your toes and ready to react when the flick shoots across into the six-yard box.
Alan Shearer will know what is coming but does he have the men to stop it? Newcastle are notoriously fragile at the back. He will have worked on organisation and he will demand that his players command the area and limit the throw-in opportunities.
The result could depend on it and I have a feeling Stoke, at home, may have too much for them, even if Newcastle can deal with the throws. Stoke are not one-dimensional and have pace in attack and especially James Beattie, who has scored six in 10 games since signing from Sheffield United in an inspired bit of transfer window business.
Also towards the bottom, an old team-mate of mine, Gareth Southgate, is not hiding during Middlesbrough's struggles. But his team have been and now they need big performances against Hull. Victory today, followed by Fulham at home next week and they could still wriggle away.
Certainly, they have reached the point of no return.
Stewart Downing has had a good season he has supplied more crosses than any other player in the Barclays Premier League and needs a big performance here.
What worries me is who is on the end of those crosses. His team do not score enough goals, with only 22 so far this season. That has to change.
I believe they will beat Hull, who have a decent away record. Maybe it's more in hope for my former club, but Gareth deserves more from his players. He is no fool. Too many of them know they will get a move away if the team is relegated but they need to start going into games all guns blazing.
