We expected a hard game and were disappointed to lose, but we deserved to lose.”Credit to Grimsby as they did well after they scored They played well as a group whereas we didn’t We were sloppy Joes. We must be more aggressive all round.”Buckley was clearly thrilled by the night’s events, but knows there is still a lot of hard work ahead if his side are to complete the job. The memory of last January’s 7-1 hammering in the FA Cup third round was erased as Alan Buckley’s skilful side took Wednesday apart in their 2-0 Coca-Cola Cup second round first leg win at Blundell Park on Wednesday.
The Owls’ confidence is now about as low as their league position as goals from Paul Groves and Steve Livingstone helped bridge the gulf in status and bely Grimsby’s 20th place in the Second Division. For many of us it was the most important game of our careers: it is not every day you play Barcelona in the Champions’ League.”There was a great atmosphere We all worked hard. The way we closed them down was fantastic, we never gave them time to settle.

At 3-0, they seemed dead and buried, you have to give them credit for coming back.”The Ulsterman has long been noted for his pace. What also impressed on Wednesday was his delivery, the crosses Asprilla scored from were just two of half-a-dozen pin-point balls.Newcastle now travel to Ukraine to play Dynamo Kiev, the group leaders after their impressive 3-1 win away to PSV Eindhoven, on 1 October. Having played there recently with Northern Ireland, Gillespie may be the only Newcastle player to have been there “It’s going to be a difficult place to go,” he said.. The Sheffield Wednesday manager David Pleat believes he will learn a lot about his players in two weeks’ time after Grimsby taught the Premiership strugglers a simple football lesson. “I was simply pleased to be in against Barcelona, you never know if you are going to be playing or not.

I have been inconsistent; two years ago, when I was on one wing and David Ginola on the other, was probably my best period.”The onus was on me to provide the service to the front two and it was a lift to play well. Tabloid revelations about his private life have been mirrored by inconsistency on the pitch This last month his undoubted ability has re-emerged. He has been outstanding against two international benchmarks, Germany’s Christian Ziege, when playing for Northern Ireland, and on Wednesday night Barcelona’s Sergi. In both cases, those displays have been hailed as his best for each team.”Playing well against Germany did lift my confidence,” he said yesterday. Keith Gillespie, the “makeweight” in the Andy Cole transfer, has had a difficult 18 months. Newcastle would have plunged into further introspection and the doubts would have intensified.

Instead, they will remember the scintillating opening hour, not the nervous last 30 minutes.The game will always be remembered for Faustino Asprilla’s hat-trick, but another player will also take strength from Wednesday night. Seven hundred fans in 14 coaches left Filbert Street for Spain as part of an official club party, but the 36-hour journey was described as “hell on wheels”. Leicester have arranged a meeting at the ground tomorrow morning for supporters to air their views.The Celtic and Scotland striker Darren Jackson is due to resume light training on Monday – only three weeks after undergoing an operation to remove excess fluid from his brain.. Newcastle woke yesterday to a thousand hangovers but the groans were dispelled as soon as the memories came back It was true, the Toon really had laid waste to Barcelona.

For a region so passionate about their football there is a lot of self- doubt in Newcastle. It was not just Kevin Keegan who was scarred by the 1995-96 championship collapse, the players and fans were, too. That was evident during Barcelona’s spirited attempt to claw back the 3-0 deficit on Wednesday night. The home players hacked the ball anywhere, inviting further pressure upon themselves, while the fans alternately chewed nails and whistled for time.
If Barcelona had levelled the tie, and Christophe Dugarry had a good chance to do so, the damage would have gone beyond the loss of two Champions’ League points.