Newcastle United Football Club News

• Nickname:Magpies
• Founded:1881
• Manager:Alan Pardew

• Ground:St James' Park
• Capacity:52,193

Hughton hails two-goal Oba

04 Nov 2008 - 08:11:29

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Newcastle United's first-team coach Chris Hughton praised Obafemi Martins after the Nigeria international scored both goals in the 2-0 win against Aston Villa, a result that lifted the Magpies off the foot of the Premier League table.

Hughton was forced to attend the post-match press conference as interim boss Joe Kinnear lost his voice during the game.

"I've got a little bit of a croaky voice, but Joe's is probably three times worse," joked Hughton after watching United clinch their second successive victory following last week's 2-1 win against West Brom.

"He was a little bit croaky before but, with all the shouting, he's lost his voice.

"Oba's a big player, there's no doubt about that. The quality he has, everybody's aware of. The pace that he has means he's able to stretch players and he can score different types of goals.

"It's a big win, particularly after the weekend which wasn't a particularly good one for us with regard to results. We felt we needed to get something from the game to go on and get some confidence in the lads, so it was important that we won.

"At the moment our results have been okay. I think it's important to get confidence from results and start climbing away from the foot of the table.

"What you want to do is improve. We knew where we were before the game and we knew we needed to improve. We know where we are now and what we now have with this group of lads is the opportunity to improve even more.

"The most important thing for us is to have options. At the moment you've got Shola (Ameobi) up front playing very well and he's given us a wonderful option.

"I thought the two players for us today gave us good options, stretched the opposition and that gives us good options from the bench as well.

"The fact that we were able to leave Michael (Owen) on the bench was testament to the two lads who played up front.

"We're very aware of Michael's qualities. It's a squad game, and the way things have been for a while now, we're very grateful that we have those choices to make."