NEWCASTLE UNITED could return to the top of the English Premiership on Wednesday night after a week in which Southampton beat Manchester United and a 64th minute goal from Les Ferdinand was enough to give Kevin Kegan side victory over Aston Villa Southampton, who demolished an out of form United in the first half of their match on Saturday, now travel north to St James's Park, while Alex Ferguson's men entertain a Leeds side fresh from a 4-1 beating by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Neither of the Championship contenders played particularly well but, while United were punished with goals from Ken Monkou, Neil Shipperley and Matthew Le Tissier for Southampton, Newcastle survived to take three precious points and revive their challenge for the top.
"It looks as though the secret of this League is to play badly and win," said Keegan yesterday. "When you play well, you get beat. If you look at the games we've won in the last month or so, the wins against Middlesbrough, Bolton and QPR have been from some of our worst performances. But when we've gone away and played like we did at Liverpool and Blackburn, we've come away with nothing perhaps we've played too well."
The Newcastle manager agreed that Tyneside spirit had been lifted by United's southcoast upset. He went on to describe yesterday's victory as probably the most important win we've had all season.
"In the circumstances you couldn't hope for a better player than Peter Beardsley to be crossing the ball or a better header of a ball than Les to be on the end of it," he said.
The balance may have swung towards the Magpies but Keegan warned "The book has still to be written. They were in the driving seat but with that comes the pressure and, no matter what you say, players have still got to go out and play.
The tension within the Newcastle side showed during the first half when defender John Beresford's reaction to instructions from the bench were evidently unprintable and Keegan decided immediately to substitute his man.
Keegan explained "He had to come off. I don't think any player should talk to the manager in that way. But that's the end of the matter. John Beresford has been a big part of what has happened here and as far as the public are concerned that's my final word on the subject."
The former Liverpool stare felt Villa had deserved a draw but his opposite number, Brian Little said "Once they scored the goal it was quite comfortable for them. Our problem was that we were sloppy in the last third and didn't take advantage of being in some good positions."
United, meanwhile, are likely to dump their grey change strip after Saturday's defeat at the Dell where Ferguson's side changed into blue shirts at the break after complaining that they could not see each other.
"The players don't like the grey strip, it is a simple as that," said Ferguson afterward adding that "I think they find difficult to pick each other out".
