Woodgate hoping for ex-clubs

Tottenham defender Jonathan Woodgate has his fingers crossed that his former clubs Newcastle and Middlesbrough will avoid the Premier League drop. The centre-back spent a season with Newcastle after leaving Leeds in 2003, and then joined Middlesbrough, initially on loan, three years later following an unsuccessful spell at Real Madrid.And as he prepares to face 18th-placed Newcastle at White Hart Lane on Sunday, live on Sky Sports 1 and HD1, Woodgate is hopeful the Magpies, and fellow strugglers Boro, will survive."Obviously I don't want either of my former teams - Newcastle and Middlesbrough - to go down and I hope they can both climb away from the bottom of the table," he said in the official matchday programme.Spurs were also fighting at the wrong end of the table before manager Harry Redknapp arrived in October.However, the North London club have lost just once on home soil under their new boss and are now targeting Europe.Confidence"We've done really well to get out of that situation and all credit to the lads for that," Woodgate added."The new manager came in and has done a great job, we've pushed ourselves up the league and now, as we come into the business end of the season, we are looking to qualify for Europe."There is a lot of confidence running through the side and hopefully that will continue."After two months of this campaign, I don't think many people would have thought we'd be pushing for a European spot, the main thing then was to simply not get relegated."But when you put a run of results together and the league is as tight as it's been this season, that's what can happen."That's exactly what Newcastle have to do now. Any team can put a string of consistent performances together including them. They are more than capable of doing that and getting themselves out of trouble."

Source: SKY_Sports