Lillestrom Friendly Is Taylor-Made, Says Steven

By Dan King - Newcastle United Digital Editor

Steven Taylor says Newcastle United have been "putting the graft and hard work in" during their training camp in La Manga - but he admits that nothing can beat a matchday.

And that's why the long-serving defender is looking forward to taking on Norwegian side Lillestrom on Saturday as Newcastle prepare for their next Barclays Premier League game, which is still nearly two weeks away.

United are determined to get last weekend's 5-1 defeat at Chelsea out of their system before they travel to Stoke City at the beginning of March.

The team have been in Spain since Wednesday and have been working at the La Manga Club Football Centre, which has been used by teams including Barcelona, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in recent seasons.

But Taylor told nufc.co.uk: "You can train as much as you want but for the lads who haven't played in a while, they want to get game time and it's a perfect opportunity tomorrow against Lillestrom.

"It's been useful for the boys to come away to a different environment instead of being at the training ground all the time. That is good for us. It's been hard work and now we're looking forward to getting some game time.

"I speak to a few players from different clubs and while several teams are away on training camps at the moment, there aren't many that I know of who have trained as much as we have this week.

"We've had double sessions, putting the graft and hard work in - because we need it, especially after the last game.

"We've got to put things right. We've looked over the game and we need to make sure that doesn't happen again.

"The next game against Stoke is a massive game for us. We are running out of games now so we need to pick the points up.

"As players and staff, we know what we demand from each other. We've held meetings over here, just like we do all the time. We look at each game to see where we can improve and whether there's anything we can do better.

"For us now, it's about taking all of that onto the football pitch and improving our away form because this season it hasn't been good enough. We need to crack on and hopefully get the points on the table before it's too late."

Taylor has played against Lillestrom for Newcastle before; he is the sole survivor from the side which beat the Norwegians over two legs in the Intertoto Cup almost ten years ago.

In July 2006, the Magpies drew 1-1 at St. James' Park, with Albert Luque on target for Glenn Roeder's team, before they ran out 3-0 winners in the second game. Shola Ameobi scored a brace while Emre also netted late on in Oslo.

"When we played against them back then, they were energetic and played quite deep," Taylor recalled.

"I think our wide players in particular will look to get a lot of joy against them. From the clips I've seen of them, they will try and counter but we're going to try and take the game to them, see what they're all about and see if they can deal with what we've got."

But while Newcastle will be looking for a strong performance, match fitness is the key.

Taylor has only recently returned to action following a hamstring injury and said: "I want as many games as possible. It's been great being back and I'm relishing every minute of being back out with the boys.

"But the more games you get, the more confident you get and that's what I need now."