Source: Eurosport
Hughton: Forget about turmoil
Newcastle's caretaker boss Chris Hughton has ordered his players to forget about the turmoil off the pitch and concentrate on the start of the new season.
The Magpies cruised to a 7-2 friendly victory over League Two Darlington, three weeks before their Coca-Cola Championship campaign begins at West Brom.
They did so with managing director Derek Llambias among the crowd as efforts to sell the club continued behind the scenes with a series of potential buyers yet to come up with the £100million owner Mike Ashley wants.
The travelling fans among a crowd of 6,698 repeatedly sang the name of manager-in-waiting Alan Shearer and were equally vociferous in their chants against Ashley.
While Ashley, Llambias, Shearer and the Toon Army await developments, Hughton has been handed the task of preparing the team for the season and he has been delighted with the way they have managed to put all the speculation surrounding their club and their own individual futures out of their minds.
He said: "There are enough people discussing it and as it gathers more momentum it will be more in the press and on television. Their escape from it all is where it should be, on the football pitch. We will just get on with the business in hand. We are very much working from day to day, waiting to find out what will happen. All we can affect is what goes on on the training pitch and on the football pitch."
