Source: Northern_Echo
Magpies find a positive in Portsmouth’s plight
WHEN the wider footballing world discusses the ongoing crisis at Portsmouth, the general hope is that some good will come out of it'.[LNB] Speak to the players and staff at Newcastle United, however, and you will find plenty of people who are willing to claim that something positive has already emerged from Fratton Park.[LNB] That something is Mike Williamson, and he could yet be the final cog that propels Newcastle back into the Premier League.[LNB] Signed for around £1m as Portsmouth desperately attempted to stem their losses in January, Williamson has made six increasingly impressive performances for the Magpies.[LNB] The best came in last weekend's 3-0 win over Preston as Newcastle kept their first clean sheet for five matches.[LNB] Having started the season at Watford, Williamson might have moved to Tyneside last August had Portsmouth not splashed out £3m to blow the Magpies out of the water.[LNB] The transfer offered the centre-half an opportunity to prove himself in the Premier League, but that chance was snatched away once Pompey's financial problems meant they were unable to play him because of automatic payments that would be triggered with each appearance.[LNB] For five long months, Williamson kicked his heels on the sidelines, but as Portsmouth's financial problems grew, so their need for quick income also intensified.[LNB] Williamson was sold and Portsmouth's loss looks like being Newcastle's gain.[LNB] We were aware of Mike last season because of what he did at Watford, said Magpies manager Chris Hughton. He was a name on our radar at the start of the season, but he ended up going to Portsmouth, a Premier League club, for a big fee.[LNB] At that stage, that was something we could do little about. But he remained on our radar and we were delighted to get him in this window.[LNB] He'd missed a lot of football before he came, so he was excited about getting back to playing again. He knew there would be competition from people like Fabricio (Coloccini), Fitz Hall and Tamas Kadar and at some stage Steven Taylor will come back in but he just wanted the opportunity to play football again.[LNB] He has taken that opportunity with both hands, and while Steven Taylor formed a rock-solid relationship with Coloccini in the first half of the season, Hughton will face a difficult dilemma when the former England Under-21 international returns to full fitness in a month or so.[LNB] Williamson is a defender who likes defending, and in a division that boasts as many physical strikers as the Championship, his no-nonsense style has bolstered the club's backline.[LNB] He is exactly what we needed, said team-mate Kevin Nolan. He stands out because he is an old-fashioned English centre-half who does the job.[LNB] If you look at the two lads at Birmingham who are getting all the plaudits right now (Scott Dann and Roger Johnson), they are players who just go and head the ball and do their job. They make sure the centre-forwards don't score, simple as that.[LNB] It used to be that everyone wanted their central defenders to play the ball, but maybe it's changing again. Mike is an old-fashioned sort of defender, and he's bedded in really well.[LNB]
