Asprilla inspires rampant Newcastle

MERCURIAL Colombian, Faustino Asprilla filled the sidelined Alan Shearer's boots with great success as Newcastle avenged their first-leg loss in Budapest by defeating Ferencvaros 4-0 in the second round of the UEFA Cup at St James Park last night.

With a typical disregard for conservative formations Keegan, selected a team packed with attackers. Shearer may be out injured but Gillespie, Asprilla, Ginola and Ferdinand all started, not forgetting Beardsley in midfield.

With Newcastle needing a victory that meant room for only three defenders at the back. Out went both full-backs from the first leg, Beresford and Watson, and Elliott was brought in to accompany Peacock and Albert.

Sitting in the visitors' dressing room Zoltan Varga, Ferencvaros's coach, must have thought "no full-backs, we'll hit the wings."

That that was the Hungarian's tactic became immediately apparent in a threatening opening five minutes. Lisztes, Ferencvaros's young playmaker who scored two stylish goals in Budapest a fortnight ago, was absent but his replacement Jagodics was a commanding centre circle figure initially.

He sprayed a couple of perfectly weighted early balls to his wide men and the Newcastle defence wobbled momentarily. However, once the home team established their forward momentum the Hungarian back line looked equally fragile.

In the sixth minute a lightning quick one-two between Asprilla and Ferdinand was only ended by the keeper Szeiler's intervention. The resurgent Ginola then flashed a shot wide and Asprilla tired over the bar when well placed 12 yards out from Lee's run and pass.

Twenty minutes had gone and by now Newcastle were dominant. And three minutes later it seemed they had achieved that vital breakthrough. Elliott created the chance with an agressive, skilful weaving run down the left. Having reached the byline Elliott crossed low, Asprilla surged towards the ball and Jagodics, lunged in.

Unfortunately for Jagodics the attempted tackle was judged late by the referee and a penalty inevitable. As we all saw, though, a goal was not Beardsley's spot kick was cleanly struck but it clipped the outside of a post on its journey from penalty kick to goal kick.

But if the moment sapped Newcastle's confidence it was not obvious. The Geordies continued to pour forward and long before half-time were facing a 10-man Hungarian defence. A dazzling Ginola burst culminated with a shot that skimmed the bar and the Frenchman then saw his technically brilliant half volley splendidly saved by Sceiler.

In between Asprilla's slick foot-work almost brought a goal but three minutes before the interval the Colombian did find the net. Continual pressure brought a series of Gillespie corners and when Albert got sufficient contact to the latest one Asprilla was on hand to pounce and stuck the ball into the corner.

It is, of course, not part of the Newcastle philosophy to sit on a 1-0 lead even though that scoreline would have been enough to take them through to the last 16. Gillespie, particularly, had no thoughts of containment and the troubled Irishman's 10 minutes after halftime must have been his best on Tyneside.

In this period three jinking runs from Gillespie brought two clear chances. Ferdinand practically head-butted the first wide from seven yards out and Ginola spanked the second onto the bar. The ball crashed down onto the line but it was hard to tell if it crossed it. The Russian linesman said no.

No matter, by the 20th minute of the second half Newcastle would be first two, and then three, ahead. Asprilla got his second of the evening just before the hour when he collected Peacock's header, advanced on Szeiler and coolly plunked the ball in with the side of his right foot.

But if that was good then Ginola's goal was even better. Following yet another Gillespie corner Ginola controlled the keeper's punch-out on the edge of the area before sending an unstoppable volley high back beyond Szeiler.

Ferdinand's late strike and Newcastle's fourth was the icing on the cake.

Afterwards Keegan was delighted with his team's performance. "That is our best display yet. It was tremendous and I know it was a great advertisement for English football. That's real football for me and it eclipsed what we did to Manchester United because, even though we beat them 5-0, we didn't dominate them so much or play such great football."