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Hughton happy with Owen decision
Newcastle United, 09:54, March 23, 2009 ,
Chris Hughton was happy with his decision to keep Michael Owen on the bench for Newcastle's 3-1 home loss against Arsenal on Saturday.
The Magpies' interim manager opted to start with Peter Lovenkrands and Obafemi Martins against the Gunners at St James' Park. However he came in for some criticism after Owen was left on the bench for 65 minutes, before eventually coming on when they were 2-1 down and two minutes before Samir Nasri put the game beyond doubt.
Hughton feels it is easy to be critical after the event and argued that he made the decision to keep Owen on the bench based on recent performances. Indeed had Martins not missed a first half penalty and Newcastle managed to convert one of several chances they created, he could have been vindicated.
"Every decision is based on results," said Hughton. "People will always question the selection when results haven't gone the way we want them to.
"There's no guarantee that Michael Owen starting would have got us the result we needed.
"It's a judgement call by myself for each particular game and you just hope to make more good ones than bad ones."