Dyer believes Newcastle can be optimistic

Newcastle United made a Wagnerian entrance into the Champions' League, their plane touching down at Boryspil Airport as thunder and lightning crashed over the city of Kiev. Tonight, however their their first Champions' League game in five years is threatened by a planned strike by electricity workers.

The next six days will contain enough electricity without interventions by the weather. Newcastle, second bottom of the Premiership and defensively frail, face Sunderland on Saturday and Feyenoord at St James' Park next Tuesday. By this time next week, Sir Bobby Robson should know whether his side's fragile early-season form has recovered and whether their second tilt at the Champions' League will last any longer than their first, which ended in December 1997 with a meaningless 2-0 win over Dynamo Kiev at St James' Park.

There are no survivors from the elderly team Kenny Dalglish fielded that evening while Dynamo are not the force who put four past Barcelona in the Nou Camp when Robson was technical director. The need to sell has hurt the powerhouse of Ukrainian football and tonight a 19-year-old goalkeeper, Rustam Khudzhamov, makes his debut in Alexei Mikhailichenko's injury-affected side.

Despite the early defeats which had Robson attacking the "witch hunt'' against Titus Bramble, the youth of his squad breathes optimism. Kieron Dyer, for one, believes Newcastle's inexperience might actually help them in the hard-nosed world of European football.

"Leeds had a young team and finished in the semi-finals,'' he said. "Success for us will be getting to the knock-out stages. We are not scared of any team. Kiev have had great European nights but have struggled in the Champions' League recently and when I saw Feyenoord playing Real Madrid in the Super Cup, there was nothing to fear from them either."

Dyer should be warned that most teams look ordinary against Real Madrid and his captain, Alan Shearer, a Geordie who knows the importance of Saturday's Tyne-Wear derby, put success in the Champions' League below that in the Premiership. The European campaign which begins in the vast bowl of the Respublikanski Stadium tonight was, said Shearer, "an adventure''.

"The league for me is far, far more important," he said. "We aim to put in a good performance that will set us up for the derby. We are well aware that Kiev won their last game 8-0 while we lost 3-0 at Chelsea; hopefully, our confidence has not been dented too much by that.''

Newcastle do not look happy defensively. They were overwhelmed at Maine Road, Anfield and Stamford Bridge and caught twice against the run of play by Leeds. Yesterday, Robson was experimenting with three centre-backs in training, using Aaron Hughes as a holding midfielder in front of the centre-halves.

Mikhailichenko, however, said he would not be going to watch his opponents train just yards from his press conference. "These kind of sessions don't tell you anything about tactics,'' said the former Rangers midfielder, who has not entirely convinced since taking over Dynamo after the death of the great Valery Lobanovsky.

Nevertheless, if Robson does employ this formation tonight, it will echo Sir Alex Ferguson's use of Roy Keane in front of the vulnerable combination of Laurent Blanc and Gary Neville in the Champions' League last season. Hughes, a highly effective right-back, did, however, excel in this role when man-marking Roma's Francesco Totti in the Olympic stadium in November 1999.

Robson said he was angry at some of his side's results, but was angrier still listening to the talkSPORT breakfast show fronted by one of his former players, Alan Brazil, writing off Manchester United. "I have never heard such twaddle,'' he said. And that goes for those who dismiss Newcastle with a month of the season gone.

Newcastle United (probable) 3-1-4-2: Given; Bramble, Dabizas, O'Brien; Hughes; Jenas, Dyer, Speed, Robert; Bellamy, Shearer.

Dynamo Kiev (probable) 4-5-1: Khudzhamov; Rachenko, Ghioane, Sablic, Nesmachniy; Khat-skevich, Cernat, Husin, Peev; Kaddouri, Shatskikh.