Newcastle Ace Hails Nationwide Players

Newcastle United's Darren Ambrose is aware oif Stead, and also that there may be more like him lurking in Division Three.

"Jon Stead scored the only goal for Blackburn at the weekend," he said last week.

"He's a good player who was unheard of, really. He scored a lot of goals in the Third Division, but he's come up and shown he can do it here. There are a lot of good players in the Nationwide, so you never know.

"The talent that comes from abroad is amazing - we've got a lot of players at Newcastle that are so talented that have come in from abroad, and so have other clubs. But you can't overlook the Nationwide. There's a lot of talent there."

Blackburn Rovers manager Graeme Souness has paid tribute to Jon Stead, likending his goal to an Alan Shearer strike.

He said: "It was a really aggressive finish. When the ball left Gally´s foot he was going to make sure that the ball ended up only in one place - in the back of the net. It was rather like a throwback to Alan Shearer, the old master at the other end who showed again what a fantastic player he is - the best there has been in my time, he´s just horrible to play against."

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