Blackburn Rovers boss Mark Hughes insists that he never expected to get the Newcastle job, despite his reluctance to play down the speculation surrounding him.

He said: "In the end, I didn't say anything, rightly or wrongly, because I felt it was better to keep my own counsel and let everyone else talk themselves into a spin.

"Neither myself nor the club heard anything from Newcastle and, from my point of view, I didn't expect anything to happen. I just wanted to get on with the job and focus on what I was doing at Blackburn."