JUDGING by the reception Robbie Elliot received on Saturday night at St James', you'd be forgiven for thinking that everyone of the 29,021 fans had just turned out to welcome one of their own back to Newcastle

A Tyneside-born player is always held in high esteem by the Magpie faithful, and after recent events concerning some of Newcastle's less than successful overseas imports, Elliott's transfer is seen as a prodigal's return.

The left-sided defender admitted before the game he was looking forward to running out on his old stamping ground and he would have been forgiven for suffering from an attack of the nerves.

But the fans made it a night to remember, and Elliot thrived on his return to put in an accomplished performance at left back..

"It was an incredible turnout and it gave everyone a big lift," said Elliott.

"I just can't wait for the day when the ground's actually full, and we get a few more in when it's a bigger game.

"We wanted to go and put on a show for them, score a few goals and show them what we're capable of. But Lokeren played a lot better than they did in the first leg. They had nothing to lose and made it difficult for us.

"It might have been different if we'd put away a couple of chances, especially in the first half.

"It would have been nice to score a couple more goals but we won and we kept another clean sheet which was important."

Elliot and his colleagues now face the far tougher obstacle of Munich 1860 on Wednesday, and a date at the Olympic Stadium.

"I've never had the chance to play there and it's something that you'll be able to remember at the end of your career.

"What we need is to get a good performance away from home and bring them back here and win the tie."

If Newcastle do overcome the German side they already know they will be playing the second-leg of the final back at St James'.

"It gives you a big advantage when you've got the fans on your side and obviously the Premiership will have already started by then so we should be fully fit.

"Saturday was only our second competitive game and bearing that in mind I think the lads performed well.

"The next game we should perform better and then we should get better after that. The lads are progressing very well."

l Former Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel made his Villa debut on Saturday in their InterToto Cup win over Slaven Belupo, keeping a clean sheet as the Midlanders ran out 2-0 winners.

And Schmiechel insists the Midlanders can make a dramatic improvement on their finishing position of eighth from last season in the Premiership.

Schmeichel claims: ''Villa are a big club and they were very disappointed with being eighth

"A club of this size should be more than eighth so we qualify for Europe and we don't have to play InterToto Cups again to get into Europe.

''We have to push United, Leeds, Liverpool and Arsenal, and if we do that we will do really well."

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