Kinnear - Long-Ball Has Never Been My Game!

Last updated : 20 October 2008 By Footy Mad - Editor
Whether he likes it or not (and obviously NOT), Kinnear's Wimbledon side were famed for using a direct style of football as they battled against the odds to stay in the top flight.

And that has been the main cause of concern amongst Newcastle supporters.

The game has moved on since the Wombles kicked anything above grass level and lofted the ball so high it often came down covered in snow.

Toon fans saw enough of the long ball game when we signed Wimbledon players Dave Beasant and Andy Thorne and the former Wombles 'keeper booted the ball high to a forwardline of dwarfs (Mirandinha, Hendry and Robertson).

We ended up relegated.

Kinnear: "I grew up with push and run. I've got all my qualifications in football, and have a degree - I've studied for many, many years.

"We were just a team that played total football all over the pitch.

"When I went to Wimbledon we started to do that, but we didn't have the quality of everybody else so we had to mix it. We had to do that to survive.

"We were getting from lower divisions, but there were about 11 of them that left as internationals. I had a lot of internationals playing under me.

"There was a lot of things that were said about us at Wimbledon that we just had to live with."