Shaka Hislop is willing to be patient with Newcastle United's rebuild and believes fans are too, knowing the club will "be there to stay" once they reach the top of the Premier League table.
Newcastle have been struggling in the bottom half of the top flight for many years, but supporters' optimism was renewed by a lucrative takeover last year.
A consortium backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund bought Newcastle from Mike Ashley, in theory making the club the richest in world football.
No team spent more than Newcastle in the January transfer window, as an outlay of around £90million brought in the likes of Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes and inspired a surge up the table.
Bottom at the start of December, a sensational run under Eddie Howe took Newcastle up to a comfortable 11th by the season's end.
Further spending is anticipated ahead of the 2022-23 campaign, when Newcastle will be expected to have loftier ambitions, although former goalkeeper Hislop suggests success will not be immediate.
"A lot of the thinking is that this ownership isn't going to come and spend that kind of money straight off the bat," he told Stats Perform.
"Many thought they would like PSG are doing, or for argument's sake [Manchester] City may have done, [but] it's going to be a slow, gradual and deliberate process in bringing back some of those glory days.
"The signings have to make sense, they have to make fiscal sense, while the ownership are going to focus on building out the infrastructure so that once Newcastle are back and competing at the top end of the table, it's just sustained effort, it is not just fuelled by big spending and transfer windows, but they're going to build out the infrastructure.
"Now, building out infrastructure is going to take years, but I think the fanbase is understanding of that. They are okay with that. That's what they want.
"They are happy to take their time to get back to competing for Premier League honours. As long as it's a sustained effort, I think that's tying into everybody's feeling around the club and one that just comes together so well.
"So, the short answer is it's going to take time, but there's no doubt in my mind that they will be competing for honours before long. We'll see how long, but once they do, they'll be there to stay."
Hislop's thoughts were informed by a visit to Newcastle's training ground to chat to former Portsmouth team-mate Howe and members of backroom staff who remain at the club from his time on Tyneside in the 1990s.
Following those conversations, the 53-year-old – who was awarded the freedom of Newcastle for his work with Show Racism the Red Card – suggested "rekindling" an atmosphere that is "like nothing else" was more important than any promises of investment.
"The way that they felt the club was going under Mike Ashley, to them, it felt like it's lost its way, it lost its direction and sense of significance around the city, around the north-east in general," Hislop explained.
"And they felt that that had been renewed under the new ownership.
"Nobody at the club, nobody at the city is talking about the wealth of the new owners and any big spending there is to come.
"Everybody's just focused on rekindling that atmosphere that we saw and loved during the 90s and having some of that football back into the place, having a sense of optimism, because it felt that that had been taken away and neglected over the last few years."
Grant McCann hails ‘outstanding’ response as Doncaster close on play-off spot
Grant McCann was a proud man after Doncaster won 4-1 at Colchester to register a 10th straight victory and move into the play-off places.
Colchester took a ninth-minute lead through Jayden Fevrier, who converted Tom Hopper’s cross at the far post, but remain in relegation danger after Rovers’ emphatic comeback.
Luke Molyneux equalised after collecting Jamie Sterry’s short free-kick and scoring with a low 25-yard shot and Doncaster took a 22nd-minute lead through Harrison Biggins, who netted from close range from Molyneux’s delivery.
Tom Anderson netted a third in the 76th minute at the near post from Hakeeb Adelakun’s pass, and Joe Ironside sealed victory when he converted after Sam Hornby had tipped James Maxwell’s shot onto a post.
A point on the final day against Gillingham will seal a play-off spot regardless of results elsewhere and McCann said: “I’m really proud.
“Obviously conceding early wasn’t ideal for us but the response was outstanding.
“We scored two very good goals, the first one from Mols (Molyneux) and the second one was another very good goal and something we knew could help us in the game, Biggo’s (Biggins) runs from the centre circle in between the posts after good play by Mols.
“In the first half, we were a little bit edgy and it was a little bit even Steven in the game.
“But in the second half, we were really comfortable and scored another couple of really good goals.
“We always play for more goals; we never sit tight and take what we’ve got – that’s just the way we like to go about things.
“We came up against a team that’s obviously down the wrong end of the table and we knew it was going to be tough.”
Fevrier had Colchester on track to secure survival but they go into Saturday’s final game just three points above the drop zone, with their goal difference superior by four over Sutton.
Colchester boss Danny Cowley said: “It was a tough night for us.
“We have the ability to self-harm, to self-destruct, in a game where we let four terrible goals in.
“For 75 minutes, it was 2-1 and they’ve had three shots at goal, two from 30 yards, and somehow they’re winning the game.
“We were 2-1 down at half-time where we felt we shouldn’t have been, as we’d done a lot right.
“We were in total ascendency and they don’t even want to score any more goals, they want to hang onto what they’ve got and we gift them another two goals.
“I’ve just looked back at the goals and they’re very hard to defend.
“We actually played well box to box but you can’t say you’ve played well when we’ve conceded the goals that we have.
“It’s a damaging night and I’m really angry. We just did the basics so poorly.”
Darrell Clarke urges Cheltenham fans to get behind team in bid to stay up
Darrell Clarke has called for Cheltenham’s fans to travel in numbers as they bid to escape the drop in League One with a final-day win at Stevenage.
Tuesday’s 2-0 home victory over Peterborough kept their hopes alive, sealed by first-half goals from Joe Nuttall and Matty Taylor, leaving them two points behind Burton.
They must win at Stevenage and hope Burton fail to beat Fleetwood and or Cambridge lose to Port Vale.
“I thought the boys were magnificent tonight and we needed to be,” Clarke said.
“Now, we take it to the last game of the season. It was a really good atmosphere tonight and the fans were great so hopefully we can get as many of them as possible down to Stevenage and fill the away end because we need everybody there trying to cheer us on for a win.
“When I came in we had one point and no goals, so of course I would have snapped your hand off for this position with one game left, with 44 points.
“The lads have been magnificent over a period of time and there is a real togetherness in the group, even when we took a lot of knocks recently.
“We have bounced back and found that really good performance. We need to find that last really good performance in the last game of the season.”
With their play-off spot already secured, Posh boss Darren Ferguson rested a host of regulars, making seven changes.
And his youthful side were blown away in the first half by the Robins, who knew anything other than a win meant relegation with one game to play.
Nuttall reacted quickest to bundle the ball over the line from close range after goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic could only parry Liam Sercombe’s shot in the 11th minute.
The lead was doubled 10 minutes later when Taylor brought down a ball forward from Lewis Freestone and applied an expert finish.
Taylor crashed a shot against the post in the 32nd minute after Liam Kinsella’s pass and Elliott Bonds forced Bilokapic into a smart save two minutes later.
Posh threatened through Ricky-Jade Jones before half-time, but they were second best and Taylor and Bonds both forced Bilokapic into evasive action in the second half.
At the other end, Luke Southwood parried Jonson Clarke-Harris’ shot in the 58th minute and kept out a late header from the centre forward.
Ferguson admitted his team struggled from the first whistle.
“They got on top of us and we couldn’t sustain any sort of control,” he said.
“The goals were terrible goals to give away, you can’t give goals away like that.
“We spoke about the first 20 minutes before we left the hotel – we had to see that through and try and make sure we dealt with them because we knew they’d be straight down our throats and they were and we conceded two soft goals.
“There were certain things we worked on that we didn’t do well enough, but the goals were poor and you can’t give goals away like that, especially tonight because they got so much energy from it.
“The longer the game went on and they hadn’t scored, the more chances we were going to get. We knew we had pace in behind and I have to say we had five or six very good opportunities as well.
“Congratulations to Cheltenham, they go into Saturday still with a chance of staying up.”
Barrow must stick together in quest to secure play-off spot – Pete Wild
Barrow boss Pete Wild stressed his side must stick together to secure a League Two play-off spot on the final day of the season.
The Bluebirds suffered a fifth defeat in a painful six-game winless run with a last-gasp 2-1 loss to Bradford.
It means they have to get a result when they host promoted Mansfield on Saturday.
Bobby Pointon opened the scoring with a great strike in the first half before Kian Spence levelled with a free-kick after the break.
But former on-loan Barrow forward Tyler Smith came off the bench to score a bruising stoppage-time winner against his old club.
And Wild said: “We didn’t do anything with or without the ball. We were frustrated at half-time. I told them ‘we’ve got to have a go and try to get over the line’.
“We played really well second half, had a go, came out fighting and got the goal, but it wasn’t enough.
“We were on the front foot. We kept trying to throw subs on to put impetus into the game and you get hit by a sucker punch at the end.
“We had four chances to clear the ball and that’s been the month hasn’t it. There have been key moments in game, chances and opportunities with the football and we’ve not done that.
“We weren’t getting a glove on them and we had to try and be braver, second half.
“I will never make it about them, it’s about us. We’re all a collective. We will win together and lose together and that’s how we’ve gone through the season.
“What we have to do now is just stick together and try to keep going.
“Across the last four games you have seen glimpses of us, but not enough of us across a full 90 minutes to get over the line.”
The Bantams were indebted to Sheffield-born Smith’s late winner for their fourth-straight win.
Boss Graham Alexander said: “I’m pleased that the players have once again showed character and personality to once again get a win from a game we should never have been drawing anyway.
“We were brilliant in the first half and should have been two or three up. But we weren’t and a good team like Barrow are going to come back into it and have a spell of pressure and momentum.
“Ultimately they got a goal from it. From our perspective it’s a poor one to concede going through the wall.
“Our performance became a bit flat after that. They had real quality and gained chances.
“The subs that came on halted their momentum.
“They were going for it as well and it was going to be (down to) who had that quality to score.
“To be fair to Tyler, he would have been under massive pressure in his own head, but he stuck it in the corner so fair play to him.”
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