Hughes the survivor dazzles as Bobby's blue-chip worker

Newcastle United return to the Champions' League on Wednesday night just as they left the competition five years ago – playing against Dynamo Kiev. Not that there will be much similarity between the team Bobby Robson sends out to face the Ukrainian champions in Kiev and the side Kenny Dalglish fielded at St James' Park on the night of 10 December 1997.

Indeed, only one member of Robson's squad played in that 2-0 home win. Aaron Hughes came on as a substitute for Alessandro Pistone a minute into the second half. "I would never have thought I was the only one, to be honest," the young full-back said when the historical fact was put to him. "But then again it doesn't seem like five years ago, and there are a lot of changes in football in five years."

There have certainly been a lot of changes at Newcastle United. An entire team has moved on (the starting line up against Kiev was Hislop, Watson, Peacock, Albert, Pearce, Pistone, Gillespie, Batty, Lee, Barnes and Asprilla). Shay Given and Alan Shearer have come back from injury (the goalkeeper played in four earlier Champions' League matches, the centre-forward missed them all). And Hughes has matured in a vibrant new team into what his vibrant manager calls "one of my blue-chip players".

It is not just Newcastle who have changed since their Champions' League campaign of '97. Hughes was a boy back then. The 44 minutes he played against Kiev was only his second taste of first-team football. He had made his debut a fortnight earlier as a second-half substitute against Barcelona in the Nou Camp. He had just turned 18 at the time.

He's a different player now, at 22. "Totally different," he concurred. "Back then I was just excited to get my first few games under my belt." Five years on, the young Northern Irishman has accumulated a wealth of experience with his club and his country. He has played 153 games for Newcastle and 24 for Northern Ireland, having made his senior international debut as an 18-year-old.

He has also been transformed from a raw teenage centre-half into a rock-steady revelation of a right-back in Robson's otherwise defensively-vulnerable team.

"I came to the club as a centre-half as a 16-year-old and I was still a centre-half until I got injured early last season," Hughes reflected. "I missed four matches and I was as surprised as anyone when the manager brought me back into the team as a right-back. I just got on with it and the more I played there the more I liked it. I got more involved, saw a lot of the ball and started getting a few things working with Nobby [Nolberto Solano] down the right and with Kieron [Dyer] and Craig [Bellamy] up front. I started to really enjoy it and I haven't looked back since."

There has been a lot of looking back on Tyneside since Wednesday night, though – a lot of critical reflection on Newcastle's play at the back in their 2-0 defeat against Leeds United, Robson's central defensive pairing of Titus Bramble and Andy O'Brien taking particularly prickly stick. "Every team lets in goals now and again," Hughes said. "I think because of the way Newcastle's defence has always been highlighted it's a matter that now every little thing gets highlighted.

"Obviously we don't like conceding goals. We watch the videos and try to put things right, but we're all human. We all make mistakes. Forwards will maybe put two or three shots over the bar but no one will remember those. They'll remember the mistake the defender made that let in a goal. It's just the way it goes in football."

For all the lingering defensive doubts, the way it has been going at St James' Park under Robson's shrewd management, Hughes reckons the new-look Newcastle are better equipped to progress in the Champions' League than the team of five years ago. They beat Barcelona at home in their opening match but failed to get beyond the first group stage. "I'm not taking anything away from the last squad, because that was a very good squad as well," Hughes said. "But I think we've just got something about us, something a bit extra about us. We've got that edge that'll maybe take us through the first stage.

"I don't think we've got anything to fear in our group. Yeah, they're all good sides – Kiev, Feyenoord and Juventus. You can't deny that. But we've got to be looking to get through the first group."

The Champions' League final already happens to be included in the fixture list in Newcastle's match programme. Hughes is too level- headed a soul to look that far ahead, though if he does make it all the way to Old Trafford on 28 May he could become the second famous product from his home town in County Tyrone.

"Cookstown Sausages!" he exclaimed, when mention was made of the brand of bangers endorsed in a television commercial by George Best in the late 1960s. "It's funny, someone just asked me a couple of hours back where I came from. I said, 'Cookstown', and they said, 'Ah, Cookstown Sausages.' It's the only thing Cookstown's known for."