Newcastle looking for a mood swing

SULLEN, subdued and basically unpleasant; not a description of the Newcastle United party that landed on the sunny banks of the Danube yesterday afternoon, but an accurate portrait of the atmosphere on board a flight that left the small Swedish coastal resort of Halmstad three weeks ago bound for Tyneside.

Newcastle United, all £60 million of them, had just been beaten 2-1 by the Swedish part timers, a performance that had their greying manager Kevin Keegan red with rage. Newcastle were still through to the next round courtesy of a four goal lead from the first leg but the mood on that flight was sour - almost as bad - as after the Charity Shield, said one player.

If ever Newcastle's footballers had motivation to do well in Budapest it would be to avoid a repeat of that experience on the journey home here. At least Keegan has since cheered up "somewhat replying: "What's that?" to a question about Newcastle's possible defensive strategy tonight.

However, the chances of the Ulloiut stadium, home of Ferencvaros, being equally friendly seems small. Ferencvaros's fans have a reputation akin to Millwall's `F' troop a few years ago. A fine of £53,000 for violence at the ground in the first round against Olympiakos followed last year's ban on Hungarian supporters by Ajax.

Historically Ferencvaros were the only club in Budapest not linked to the Communist Party - Honved were the army team, Ujpest Dozsa the police team - and skinhead racists feature prominently at the Ulloi.

Imperturbable Peter Beardley's attitude to this is: "How will we know what they are shouting any way? We handled Roker Park this season when we didn't have a single supporter in the stadium. If we can handle that we can handle anything."

Beardsley, of course, will not be the target of any racial abuse that the Ajax players found so offensive. That will fall principally on the ears of Les Ferdinand, the one black Newcastle player sure to start. The others, Shaka Hislop and the team's resident Alan Whicker, Faustino Asprilla, will probably be on the bench.

Strangely, that was from where Ferdinand said he had his worst taste of racism in England - in the dug out at Grimsby during his QPR days. "The abuse Devon White and Dennis Bailey got was unbelievable," said Ferdinand. "I don't know much about Ferencvaros, I've heard it is an intimidating atmosphere. But I've had all that before and it makes me want to score more" - something he hasn't done in either of his last two games.

Ferencvaros, having failed at the preliminary stage of the Champions League, are the last Hungarian team in Europe. They moved into second place in their league at the weekend with a 1-0 victory over Vasas.

Arthur Cox watched that game and together with Keegan who has seen videos of Ferencvaros's previous European games seems quietly confident that Newcastle players will be able to speak on the flight back home tonight.