Source: Telegraph
Newcastle's Nicky Butt eyes hattrick at Tottenham to aid relegation battle
Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle United
Kick-off: Sun Apr 19, 1.30pm, White Hart Lane, London
TV: Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports HD1
Radio: BBC Radio Five Live
The former Manchester United player has scored on his last two victorious visits to White Hart Lane and knows a repeat performance will do wonders for Newcastle's hopes of preserving their Premier League status.
Newcastle won 3-2 two years ago thanks to goals from Obafemi Martins, Paul Huntington and then Butt before trouncing Spurs 4-1 last season under Kevin Keegan as Butt sparked a dramatic comeback before Geremi, Michael Owen and Martins weighed in with goals of their own.
"A couple of years ago it was a bit of a shock for me to score," Butt said. "Oba's shot was one of those that you look back on for many years but I managed to get the winner which was nice.
"Last season it was one of those performances where every time we went forward it looked as though we could score goals. We went behind again that day but stuck in there until half-time and got the equaliser and from there we performed really well. Hopefully we will get a result like that on Sunday.
That 4-1 victory was the game where we were able to say we were safe because it took us so far away from the bottom three. Three points this weekend would go a long way to taking us to safety.
"Hopefully we can kick on and get an undefeated run going. We need to and we all want that and the manager and coaching staff have told us what they expect from us now.
"On a personal note, it will be a long shot for me to score again this weekend but I don't care who scores as long as we keep picking up points and keep improving our performances week in week out now. if we do that we should be okay." Newcastle may still be in the relegation zone with six matches left Butt hailed the impact Alan Shearer has had since taking over as manager a fortnight ago.
"Alan and (assistant manager) Iain Dowie and the staff he has brought in have their own methods and their own way of thinking and they are drumming it into us now. everyone is taking it on board," Butt added.
It is a very positive crowd at the minute. We've had a few bad results in the last few weeks but saying that they have been against the top teams.
They will be tough for anyone.
"We performed well in parts of these games but against Stoke we performed well through the game apart from ten minutes here and five minutes there.
The confidence is up there now and the ability and belief is there in the squad that we can do this.
"We performed really well in the 1-1 draw against Stoke and deserved a win but we didn't get it. We've got to keep our chins up and keep kicking on and try to get the results that we have deserved in the last few weeks.
"After the Stoke game we all felt as though we should have won it. But when you go to a place like the Britannia Stadium where Stoke have only lost three times this season they are very physical and difficult to play against and so all in all maybe we are happy with a point now but afterwards we were all disappointed not to have won."
