Tyneside feels like heaven for Ferdinand

Football

Les Ferdinand yesterday reflected on the scintillating display that lifted Newcastle United - if only temporarily - to the top of the Premiership, and promised the Toon Army: "The best is yet to come."

The club-record pounds 6m signing from Queen's Park Rangers demonstrated both his stunning ability in the air and his surging power on the ground with a brace in Newcastle's 3-1 win at Bolton on Tuesday that took his tally to three in two games. The 28-year-old warned the rest of the Premiership that his partnership with Peter Beardsley is still only in the incubation stage.

"Playing with Peter is like a dream come true," Ferdinand said. "You ask any forward who has played with Peter, you know he'll make goals for you. We still haven't got our understanding off to a `T' yet but once that gets going I'm sure there will be a lot more goals to come.

"The thing with Peter is that when you watch him play he looks like he gets more joy out of creating a goal for someone than scoring one himself. I'm just hoping to be on the end of some of those passes."

Ferdinand's outstanding display at Burnden Park had the Bolton manager, Roy McFarland, relishing the prospect of seeing him paired with Alan Shearer at international level. The striker himself, however, is more concerned with satisfying the demands of his new Tyneside followers.

"The expectation here is a lot higher," he said. "The players expect more, the supporters expect more, the management expects more and I'm demanding more of myself as well. Right at the beginning I said I'd only leave QPR if I felt it was going to improve my football, and at a club like Newcastle that's what I'm looking for.

"I had a good side behind me at Rangers. The unfortunate thing was we didn't have the strength in depth. We'd go into the season believing there was a chance of winning a cup but here we're believing we can win the League."

While Newcastle's performance delighted their manager, Kevin Keegan, perhaps the biggest boost to his side's hopes of sustaining a championship challenge came with the news that the Belgian international defender, Philippe Albert, is close to making his return.

Albert has been out since damaging knee ligaments on New Year's Eve but Keegan said: "After training on Wednesday I told Philippe that it was the first time I felt he looked as if he was really back.

"He needs games now, probably one or two in the reserves. If we keep winning he might have to wait but if he's fit he's got to come into the reckoning."

While Newcastle - who were top of the table until November last season - have got off to another flying start, Bolton are still pointless. However, their Icelandic defender, Gudni Bergsson, believes that will change soon.

"We let a point slip away," said Bergsson, whose header had looked as if it would secure a draw before late goals from Robert Lee and Ferdinand won the game. "What we must do is make sure that when we equalise in the future we're a bit steadier and hold on to what we've got, although perhaps that's down to a lack of experience."