It may have been 3-0 when Damien Duff reluctantly made way for Albert Luque on Saturday against PSV Eindhoven.
But the Newcastle United new boy more than played his part on his debut at St James’ Park.
Duff never stopped running on Saturday and showed why United wanted him so much from Chelsea.
It wasn’t just his fantastic dribbling, passing and crossing. But also his ability to shake off defenders and the genuine look of disappointment when the fourth official confirmed his number was up on the hour mark was an almighty encouraging sign.
Duff is here to play and that must be music to the ears of the Geordie faithful.
The Toon Army love to see players running at defenders, beating them and producing that killer cross - preferably with a respected number 9 polishing things off - could you say in Duff we have half of that dream in the bag already?
Down the years United have almost afforded the same cult status to wingers as they have to the great number 9s themselves.
Names like Terry Hibbitt, Chrissy Waddle, David Ginola, Keith Gillespie and Laurent Robert have all had some truly sensational moments at United and that’s to name but a few.
Everybody has their favourite Toon winger!
One of my personal favourite moments was when David Ginola in one of his early games gave then Middlesbrough defender Neil Cox a near mental breakdown after a terrific showing at the Gallowgate back in 1995, culminating with a trio of step-overs before the laying the ball off.
Cox later claimed because he was on a yellow card he could do little about Ginola’s roasting - but the truth was he’d been ran ragged.
Now there isn’t a Geordie alive who isn’t willing Duff to join that legendary group of United’s wide men.
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