Hughton hoping for home comforts

12 November 2010 13:30
Chris Hughton admits Newcastle's home form is keeping him awake at night. The promoted Magpies currently sit in fifth place in the Barclays Premier League table having made a hugely encouraging start to life back in the top flight. However, they have already lost three times at St James' Park in six outings, and to Blackpool, Stoke and Blackburn, all sides they would have targeted before the campaign got under way. Indeed, their lofty position is due in large part to a remarkable record on the road, where they have already beaten Everton, West Ham and, to the surprise of many last Sunday, Arsenal. Their difficulties at St James' Park are all the more confusing as they trounced Aston Villa 6-0 first time out and after slipping up against Blackpool and Stoke and only avoiding a repeat against Wigan at the death, routed arch-rivals Sunderland 5-1. Hughton knows that is a situation which has to be remedied quickly if the early momentum is to be maintained, and he will hope to head for his bed tomorrow night with three more points safely banked. He said: "All managers lose sleep, it's part and parcel of the job and part and parcel of the contract, I think. But the important thing is you try not to ponder too much on what is the past and rather how you can affect the future. We have an issue we have to address at home and that's what you need to concentrate on. Amongst all of that, there have probably been more positives than negatives and what we have to do is keep as many positives as possible and learn from the negatives."

Source: PA