Hughton - Promotion the aim

Hughton: Staying grounded

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Chris Hughton is staying grounded after Newcastle moved one step closer to a Premier League return against Scunthorpe.

The Magpies are looking primed for a top-flight return after their 3-0 win over The Iron moved them well clear of third-placed Nottingham Forest.

The St James' Park outfit are a whopping 12 points clear of Forest with a Championship game in hand.

Hughton says the objective at the start of the season was promotion and nothing has changed: "The aim of this football club is to get back into the Premier League.

"However we manage to do that, whether it's automatically or through the play-offs, that was always the aim and objective and nothing's changed from that."

No answer

Hughton's counterpart Nigel Adkins says his side had no answer to wave after wave of attack from Newcastle on Wednesday evening.

Andy Carroll helped himself to a brace with a goal from free-scoring Peter Lovenkrands sandwiched in between.

Adkins knew they would be up against it in the North East and felt they did not help themselves at time with poor marking from set-pieces.

"I think we knew it would be a challenging evening, but we've come here, to the big arena, and I felt they were excellent, Newcastle," said Adkins.

"We gave the ball away after 30 seconds and that probably set the tone. We knew we couldn't give cheap set plays away.

"Carroll's gone and got a free header. It doesn't matter how much you want to talk about it, you've got to defend it.

"A midfielder's gone through, you're 2-0 down and you're thinking you're going to be on the end of a heavy hiding.

"They are a top team. They are going to win the league and they work very, very hard."