Source: Northern_Echo
Ibrox match will be home from home
PETER LOVENKRANDS will head from one home to another in the next 24 hours, leaving behind St James' Park on the Newcastle United team coach to head for Ibrox.[LNB] It is not that the Danish striker has decided to uproot and move back to Scotland after only 18 months on Tyneside, just he will lead the Magpies against his former club Rangers tomorrow.[LNB] Lovenkrands spent six years in Glasgow, after moving from Copenhagen in 2000, and he feels emotionally attached to a place that he still refers to as home.[LNB] The 30-year-old will receive a warm reception from Rangers supporters tomorrow afternoon, knowing he made more than 150 appearances for the club.[LNB] It's going to be fantastic going back to Rangers, I've been dreaming of that for a while, to play and run out there. It will be fantastic to run out at Ibrox again, he said.[LNB] I feel at home at Newcastle too, it feels like a second home. But Rangers is the place where I made my mark and my football career took off. They'll always be special.[LNB] They helped me along and I had a fantastic relationship there. It'll always be a special place for me.[LNB] In many respects it is nice for Lovenkrands that it is a friendly, taking away the pressure of having to spearhead Newcastle to victory over a club he still adores.[LNB] Emotions aside, however, the former Schalke striker remains intent on stepping up his pre-season, with manager Chris Hughton looking for Newcastle to be at their best in their last outing before the trip to Manchester United in the Premier League.[LNB] I'm feeling really good about how pre-season has gone, definitely, said Lovenkrands, who missed a large chunk of the summer work last season because he was unattached.[LNB] I'm feeling really fit and as if I'm getting into good form.[LNB] I'm really pleased with the way it's going.[LNB] It's been a while since I've had a proper pre-season, so I'm really happy I've been able to join in with the whole of preseason.[LNB] It means a lot to me and I can feel it on the pitch.[LNB] With so many strikers to compete with at the moment you want to stay fit. That's the main thing, to stay fit and, hopefully, get through the whole of pre-season. It's been going well until now.[LNB] Lovenkrands has started his fair share of pre-season fixtures, but with Andy Carroll, Shola Ameobi and Leon Best all vying for the two starting berths he knows he has a difficult task on his hands.[LNB] He said: You want to play as much as possible, so I'm just going to try to keep myself fit and play as much as I can but, goals-wise, I don't want to put a target on it because I don't want to jinx myself.[LNB] I'm just looking for as many as I can get, and I just hope we can get a lot.[LNB] Hughton is also still in the market for another striker, with reports in Germany suggesting Newcastle are competing with Bayern Munich for Turkey's Deniz Yilmaz.[LNB] Yilmaz, 22, is available for about £700,000 after being told he can leave by Louis van Gaal, although Blackburn and Stoke City have also been credited with an interest.[LNB] Newcastle's most highprofile signing of the summer, Sol Campbell, has, meanwhile, suggested he will not be fit to face United at Old Trafford.[LNB] The 35-year-old is continuing to work on his fitness after missing the bulk of preseason after extending his honeymoon, leaving him with a few extra pounds to shed.[LNB] I'm three weeks behind everyone else, he said. You can't really rush the body, so you've got to take time step by step. Now is the time to knuckle down and, in two or three weeks, I should be in better shape to play games.[LNB] It's only a week until the first game, so it's a little bit short for me, for sure.[LNB]
