Former Newcastle United striker Peter Lovenkrands has labelled the squad that won promotion from the Championship in 2009/10 as ‘special.’ The Magpies romped to the title and secured an immediate return to the Premier League with 102 points – the second most ever in a single Championship season.
Lovenkrands scored 13 goals in 29 matches during the course of that campaign, forming excellent relationships with the likes of Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan, who both netted 17 goals each. The former Denmark international explained how their off the field chemistry among the squad helped aid their progression on the pitch too.
Speaking to FourFourTwo, he said: “Special. It was really upsetting that we didn’t survive, but the club wanted to keep me and I played a big part in getting us back up. The front three - me, Nolan and Andy Carroll - scored for fun. I’ve had great team mates over the years, but the togetherness we had was fantastic.
“We’d meet up 12 to 14 of us, go for food and then to the cinema. We’d all have a laugh. It was such a good bond and that showed with the manner we progressed.”
As aforementioned, Lovenkrands struck up an excellent partnership with Geordie-born striker Andy Carroll. The 42-year-old described Carroll as a ‘dream to play with’, but also someone who was great to be around away from football too.
He said: “Andy was such a lovely, bubbly boy. He was so big and so funny. He was wild, but we had a great relationship. He was a dream to play with - he attracted so much attention from defenders and was the best header of a ball I played with.
“After securing promotion, we were discussing what it would be like to have the same kind of season in the top flight. He erupted and scored 10 goals by January. He was sold to Liverpool for £35 million, earning £80,000 a week! It was like, ‘what the hell? We just spoke about that, and then he did it!’”
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