Cup win can put Dalglish critics firmly in their place The road to Wembley

''The league form hung us, ''he admits, ''but when you look at the season as a whole, there were good things for the support as well as the bad.

''And if we had been able to get maybe another eight points or so in the championship, then I think that might have deflected some of the criticism.

''However, if you look at the whole picture, then you will see that we got ourselves through to the Champions' League where we picked up seven points and now here we are in the cup final.

''A lot of the other teams in the league would settle for that kind of season.''

The biting criticism which has followed Newcastle on and off the field has hurt Dalglish but, in his view, it has also unified the team.

So much so that he will be looking for a repeat of their early season form when they were

riding high in the league and enjoying epic nights at St James' Park against such European giants as Barcelona.

To some extent they suffered from the loss through injury of their England World Cup striker, Alan Shearer, although Dalglish, himself, will not hide behind that excuse.

He says simply: ''You can't put it down to one thing in that way. That would be wrong.

''We just lost consistency and with that we lost our way in the league.

''However, the cup has been there for us and that has been good for the players and we shall get a taste of Europe again next season, and may be that is the kind of stimulation we all need again.

''A lot of the criticism we have had to face has been unfair but the lads know that. Believe me, the dressing room has been superb this week. They are reacting in the right way, just the way I would have wanted them to do.

''They won't let it affect them in the final. In any case, some of it has been nonsense. I have had very few complaints from the supporters, but there are the snipers and we have to ignore them and get on with the job we have here.''

There is a general misconception of Dalglish as the proto-type dour Scot. To some extent that has been his public face for much of this season as his team has foundered in the league, but, among friends, Dalglish demonstrates a sense of humour which is infectious.

He also has the ability to laugh at himself which many of his

critics do not share.

On Thursday night, when he was a top-table guest at the Football Writers' Player of the Year dinner, he sat alongside the

impressionist Kevin Connolly.

Now, Connolly is a devastatingly wicked mimic. Some years ago at the same function he was beside former England manager Bobby Robson and took him off mercilessly.

This week he did the same job on Dalglish, catching the Glasgow accent and the phlegmatic style which have become Dalglish trademarks. The 500 guests roared with laughter and there was King Kenny joining in with the kind of smile which lit up so many famous grounds following one of his goals.

Those who misunderstand him - some of them deliberately it has to be said - should have taken note. This was not the Dalglish of tabloid legend.

This was the real man sitting there among his peers, so many of the others who have won player of the year awards down through the years, and able to take a joke at his own expense.

There is little doubt that he can be abrasive, little doubt that when he wants to be, Dalglish is also awkward to some members of the media. Some of that comes, of course, though from an obsessive and stubborn loyalty he shows towards his all of his playing staff.

Dalglish is not the kind of manager who will criticise players in public, not the kind of man who will shirk his own responsibilities, because that is the way he learned the game. He learned from Jock Stein at Celtic, and from Bob Paisley and his boot-room cohorts at Liverpool, and he learned, too, from experience.

His managerial career has been crowned by stunning successes at Liverpool, where he was able to pull off the feat that few can usually achieve of moving straight from the dressing room into the manager's office and still remain a winner.

However, it also has been scarred by the tragedy of Hillsbrough, when so many lives were lost and so many families destroyed, just as his playing career also was blighted by the tragedy that happened at Heysel.

It is too often forgotten that Dalglish came through these tragedies and, in the case of the second, took himself to the point of an emotional breakdown as he visited the bereaved families and attended the funerals in Liverpool.

Now, it is understandable that he can view the complaints being aimed at himself and the Newcastle team as being not quite as important as the people who make them might believe.

Today at Wembley he will lead out his players and attempt to win the FA Cup.

If he does so, then it will have been done to satisfy the ambitions and the dreams of the Tyneside support, not to appease the snipers because Dalglish, deep down, simply won't care too much for them and their propaganda war.

THE two clubs contesting today's FA Cup final reached Wembley in contrasting ways, with Arsenal have more games to play:

Arsenal

January 3: Third round) - Port Vale (home) drew 0-0. Jan. 14: replay - Port Vale (away) drew 1-1 AET (Bergkamp) (Arsenal won 4-3 on pens).

January 24: Fourth round: Middlesbrough (away) won 2-1 (Parlour, Overmars).

February 15: Fifth round: Crystal Palace (home) drew 0-0. February 25: replay: Crystal Palace (away) won 2-1 (Anelka, Bergkamp).

March 8: Sixth round: West Ham (home) drew 1-1 (Berg-kamp pen). March 17: replay: West Ham (away) drew 1-1 AET (Anelka) (Arsenal won 4-3 on pens).

April 5: semi-final: Wolves (Villa Park) won 1-0 (Wreh).

Newcastle

January 4: third round: Everton (away) won 1-0 (Rush).

January 25: fourth round: Stevenage (away) drew 1-1 (Shearer). February 4: replay: Stevenage (home) won 2-1 (Shearer 2).

February 14: fifth round: Tranmere (home) won 1-0 (Shearer).

March 8: sixth round: Barnsley (home) won 3-1 (Ketsbaia, Speed, Batty).

April 5: semi-final: Sheffield United (Old Trafford) Won 1-0 (Shearer).