Can Newcastle Bank On 'One Of Their Own'?
Last updated : 16 May 2009 By Footy Mad - Editor
Gary was a tough ginger-haired midfielder signed from Nottingham Forest by Jack Charlton.
To be honest with you, he was never a crowd favourite, as he tended to run around like a headless chicken.
BUT ... there is still time for him to become the King Of The Leazes ... if he aids Newcastle's cause.
Megson insists there is no room for sympathy in football as former Wanderers assistant Phil Brown prepares to bring his struggling Hull side to the Reebok on Saturday.
Having been as high as third earlier in the season, the Tigers slipped into the bottom three after Newcastle's victory over Middlesbrough on Monday.
And with only one win in 20 Premier League matches, their first top-flight season in the club's 105-year history is in serious danger of ending with a swift return to the Coca-Cola Championship.
Megson is no stranger to the threat of relegation, either as a player or manager.
Gary Megson: "It can happen. I was at Norwich (in 1994-95) when we were in the top six at Christmas and the goalkeeper Bryan Gunn broke his leg and I think we won one game from that point onwards.
"You keep thinking it is going to change and it doesn't and then you get a problem with confidence and then things seem to go against you and that seems to have happened to Hull.
"It is also more difficult in the second half of the season; all the bigger clubs strengthen in the January window because they know they have to and it is hard for any club coming up from the Championship.
"In terms of sympathy, football is not like that, you are purely concerned with your own football club and whatever benefits you can get for them.
"We were in that position last season that Hull are in now but they won't expect any favours from us and nor will they get any.
"We didn't get or expect any last year. That is just the way it is.
"I'm sure there is going to be a lot of attention throughout the country on how we approach the game.
"We want it to be seen that if we go out there and give everything we have got and Hull beat us then that is a result of their quality and not the fact we have not turned up, which would be really galling.
"One of the things that helped us last season was that we played a few teams who didn't have anything to play for.
"We benefited from that but I don't want us to become one of them. To be frank, we have done that in the last couple of games and have looked not flat but not as sparkling as I would expect."