No regrets for Distin as he sets goal of reaching Europe

If things had turned out differently last summer, Sylvain Distin would have been trying to stop Newcastle losing 4-1 to Portsmouth last week rather than helping to defeat them. One of the more surprising results of the season, for 48 hours it had the South Coast club in the top four. Who knocked them off that perch? None other than Distin's old club Manchester City.

The Frenchman, who had rejected a last-minute offer from the Tynesiders in June, faces up to his former employers today for the first time since leaving them on a free transfer. Yet the central defender, who will be 30 next month, does not regret moving on, despite seeing some measure of success come to the club where he became an importantfigure over five years.

Distin has no regard for hindsight. To him it was clear the time was right to move on. There was no inkling of the turnaround in fortunes thanks to the club's new Thai owner, let alone of Sven Goran Eriksson's appointment and canny acquisitions.

He says: "When I left, the takeover was half-complete, so I didn't know what was going to happen, they had no coach and lots of the same players. Six or seven then left because it was the end of their contract, and so for me it was an easy decision. It was time to go.

"In the last few years we lost Nicolas Anelka and Shaun Wright-Phillips and I expected at least one or two players to take their positions, and it did not happen. I only played once in Europe at City, and so I thought it's time to do better."

The club's waning fortunes left him unfulfilled. "I need to love what I do," he explains. "I want to wake up in the morning and feel like I want to go training and I'm going to enjoy it. There was a lot of frustration at City. It was a very tough decision to leave. I waited until the last minute but I'm sure it was better to go. I needed to refresh my mind, have a new challenge and do something new for me."

Distin played for Newcastle on loan from Paris St-Germain in 2001-02 but rejected a permanent move due to what he saw as an unrealistic wage offer, and then turned down the Geordies' late attempt to take him back to St James' Park this year, mindful of the uncertainty there as they changed owners.

His decision to go south has proved a good one. Although he misses friends and life back in Manchester – he is still in contact with City's defender Micah Richards – he has settled into Portsmouth's style of football and has helped them in their impressive start to the season. Now he thinks Pompey should "achieve". He explains: "When I say achieve, I mean play in Europe, that's the main goal. Or reach the final of a cup, or finish in the top six or seven, depending on where the cut mark is for the Uefa Cup. If you are doing well and at your best that's fine. But if you're doing well and you know you're still not at your maximum, it should make yourealise you can do even better."

Doing better for Distin would mean a clean sheet today. The perfectionist in him felt that a 4-1 away win last week in front of 50,000 Geordies was not good enough. One-nil today will make him far happier and keep those dreams of Europe alive.