Source: Eurosport
Hart urges Pompey to forget Shearer
Portsmouth boss Paul Hart has urged his players not to fear the "Alan Shearer factor" in Monday's crucial Premier League clash at Newcastle.Pompey can move onto 40 poitns with victory at St James' Park but their task has undoubtedly been made harder by the arrival of Shearer on Tynesider. Hart, though, is urging his players to forget that and concentrate on their jobs.He said: "Alan was a great player and he's a great man. And I'm sure he will be a great manager if he wants to be."But as Cloughie (Brian Clough) once told me at Nottingham Forest, no manager, however good, has actually ever won a football match. It is players who do that, players who make a team play. It is all about players."Hart, 55, who played under Clough at Forest for three years from March 1983 and later went on to manage the club himself, said: "I don't give myself any pats on the back for what we've achieved at Portsmouth over the last few months."It is down to the players and the way they have responded to what myself and (coach) Brian Kidd have put in place - a basic pattern of play to stop us shipping goals like we had been."Newcastle have a fantastic squad. We'll be playing against the likes of Michael Owen, (Obafemi) Martins and maybe Mark Viduka if he still back fit. That's enough to ensure we try to keep our feet on the pedals."It seems Alan Shearer was brought back to give them more incentive but they don't need any extra incentive than to stay in the Premier League."It is the same with us here. What we've done is make ourselves very hard to beat and we must take that attitude to Newcastle. I've heard people saying certain teams are too good to go down but in the end it is only points which will tell you that."Seven points clear of the second-from-bottom Magpies, Pompey already look almost home and hosed in the race to beat relegation but Hart is still not convinced that 40 points - which they would achieve with a win at St James's Park - is sufficient.He said: "I simply don't how many points we will need. Who does? All I'll say is that we'll keep on scrapping to get as many points as we can regardless of whether or not we stay in this division."Newcastle, supposedly have got to win their three remaining home games to give themselves a chance (of staying up) but we still need points, too, and we'll try to make it very difficult for them."Hart is confident of another happy Pompey night - he has already won three and drawn four of his nine games in charge since succeeding sacked Tony Adams - and a return to winning ways after a gallant 2-0 defeat at Manchester United in midweek.He said: "The players showed in that Old Trafford game, as much as any of the previous ones, that they have what it takes to be very hard to beat. We could have caved in and got the same kind of result as Spurs did there (beaten 5-2) on Saturday.David Nugent has been passed fit for selection after limping out of the Manchester United game at half-time with a "dead leg" but there is still a doubt over defender Younes Kaboul who missed that match with a thigh injury while midfielder Niko Kranjcar (ankle) has again been ruled out.[LNB]
