Reluctant heroes

Apr 11 2010 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

WHEN even people clad head to toe in Mike Ashley’s clobber aren’t foaming at the mouth, you know Newcastle is largely free of Premier League fever.

Where champagne football once went to Geordie heads, today’s promotion brew contains more than a single shot of reality.

Even Sky Sports News’s idiot radar has found it difficult to find a knuckle-dragger who suggests that next season will be anything but a struggle.

Kevin Keegan twice swept United to promotion on a tidal wave of emotion. On Monday, it all felt like strictly business.

But, then, Keegan was the head of a dream factory. If Chris Hughton and Co are making anything, it is amends.

Not that the sober mood in and around St James’ Park will stop the nation’s most rabid anti-Newcastle “observers” from accusing Magpie fans of delusions of grandeur.

To be fair, some who danced on United’s grave last May are keeping a respectful silence, perhaps as wary of the lack of triumphalism on Tyneside this week as embarrassed all season by the loyalty of a Gallowgate faithful they so often maligned.

But the sense and depth of desperation of those writers still tearing strips – or picking nits – off the Toon Army is all too legible between the lines.

Nobody at the Daily Mail is claiming responsibility for the following rubbish . . .

“The days of Champions League football are long gone and Newcastle have not won a major trophy since the Fairs Cup in 1969. But the fans are still convinced they are not just the greatest team in the North East, they’re the greatest team in the world.

“Not even a stint in the Championship is going to deter some Geordies from considering a tilt at the title in 2010-11.”