Souness wary of optimism

UEFA Cup/Group of 32/Newcastle United  v Heerenveen/St James's Park 7.30: A week ago Graeme Souness could foresee a time when he would not be manager of Newcastle United - and he was not looking into the distant future.St James's Park, 7.30

Some 55 minutes into the first leg at Heerenveen, with Newcastle trailing 1-0 and the travelling fans voicing their discontent, Souness may well have contemplated that retirement in Australia he has talked about.

But then came Alan Shearer's equaliser, Lee Bowyer's winner and three days later an FA Cup victory over Chelsea.

That Chelsea were seriously depleted in quality and numbers, and that Newcastle did not play well, has been overlooked amid the relief on Tyneside at, at last, two favourable results.

Suddenly Souness is mentioning Michael Owen and Jermain Defoe as potential transfer targets and reiterating that he thinks Shearer might not retire at the end of this season. It is all good tub-thumping stuff.

The mood at St James' Park is better, but it ignores the reality of Shearer's words at the weekend - "I said a few months ago that this season would be my last and nothing has happened to make me change my mind" - and it may confuse local perspective on the rest of the season.

It would be amazing if Heerenveen knocked out Newcastle this evening, so a place in the last 16 against Olympiakos or Sochaux (whom Newcastle beat 4-0 away in November at the group stage) awaits. Geordies can see a way to the quarter-finals.

"If we had lost the last couple of games we would be in a different mood," Souness said yesterday. "The challenge is to keep it going. You win a game, the mood changes. You lose a game, the mood changes. It's the same at all football clubs, although perhaps a little more so here.

"We would be foolish in the extreme if we thought that the hard part was done. I played in a lot of European games and sometimes it's harder to play at home than it is away from home. We have to fear the worst."

Not so different from a week ago after all. ...