"Europe is great, we're enjoying Europe.But there's no doubt that, when you play in Europe on a Thursday night and you don't get home until the early hours of Friday morning and then you have to travel away, it is tiring.

"I felt we had tired legs in the second half and that's why we faded and Bolton didn't. We fizzled out in the second half and Bolton came into it more and more. We lacked a bit of energy to sustain the tempo, to pass the ball or make any inroads into their half.

"But we can't have it both ways; we didn't want to go out of Europe, that would have been very disappointing. We just have to be strong enough to handle what Europe asks of us and also to come back home and play Premiership football and pick up points.

"We have eight games to go; four at home, four away. I have heard it said that nobody wants to finish fourth but that's wrong.

"Everybody wants to finish fourth and that's why it is so difficult to do it," said Robson. Our run-in isn't easy but Aston Villa, Birmingham, Charlton and Birmingham won't have an easy time of it either, that's the way the Premiership is.

On debutant Taylor:

"Steven is not a full-back, he is a centre-half. He never thought he would make his debut in that position. But he did okay. He didn't let us down.

"I do think it was a push on the young boy making his debut by Pedersen."

"It was nice to get a clean sheet after so long. It was a change to go ahead rather than go behind which we have been doing. There was a spell in the first half where Newcastle came into game.

"The second half was ours though and but for Shay Given we would have won comfortably.

"When we had to defend we did. we had enough shots at goal to score the second one. Ivan Campo had a chance for 2-0 but 1-0 is enough. Today the lads were professional and played the game out in Newcastle's half."

Goalscorer Pedersen commented:

"I just saw the goalkeeper was out of position so I tried to get the ball into the danger zone. I just wanted to get something on it. I thought Kevin (Davies) managed to get there for a touch but he didn't. It was three important points.

"I was a little concerned with Newcastle who were creating chances we but we managed to get hold of them in the second half and kept them away from our goal.

"We were worried because in the last couple of months lower teams have started to get some points."

"One step forward, two steps backwards. Typical bloody Magpies."

A quote from our match report of December 26th 2002, when we'd just failed to win a third Premiership away game of the season and lost by one goal at the Reebok - a result that dropped us down to sixth place in the Division.

And almost 16 months on, we're a place better off, hoping for an achievable top four finish and still playing in Europe (albeit in an inferior competition). Just a bad day at the office then, a poor result but a hard side to play against for a weary team that had been on their travels in midweek. And anyone who says otherwise is a muppet, apparently.

Well, I must be the result of a bizarre cloning experiment then between a pig, a frog, a bear with a hat and two miserable old blokes stuck in a box. Certainly any one of Jim Henson's felt and wool creations would have provided more opposition than certain of our number against Allardyce's lot.

On the basis I'm unable to contain my rage any longer, we simply have to start with that workshy, smirking cockney Lee Bowyer. Eighteen games of utter rubbish we've had now from him since the start of the season, interspersed with an injury that took a mysteriously long time to right itself.

In virtually every one of those games we've seen evidence of a player who just doesn't give a toss about this club or his colleagues. Prime examples today included: passes played within a couple of yards of him that he just couldn't be bothered to make a move for, tackles that were thought about but not put in, a total disinterest in helping out a debutant teenager behind him on the field, or even in playing the position you're allegedly filling. And perhaps worst of all, some woeful distribution - come back Des Hamilton, can you hear me Fumaca?

Bowyer in his Newcastle "career" is making Clarence Acuna look like he should be a first-choice in Los Galacticos. It's now blindingly obvious Bowyer hasn't the slightest interest in this club, only his bank account. No ambition, no pride, no fight.

So, you're not a right-sided midfielder. All together now, aaaahhh. 

Taylor's not a right back - that didn't stop him having a go and being involved right up to added time when he popped up to have a shot on goal. Not much evidence of Bowyer doing that is there?

Make no mistake, whoever bungled that paperwork to complete his UEFA ban had the best interests of this club at heart - in keeping him as far away from a pitch we're featuring on for as long as possible. Not that playing in Europe midweek could have made him any slower or ponderous than he already is.

Oh yes, playing in Europe. The reason why we lost - sorry Bobby, didn't realise you'd played your get out of jail card there..... 

Hang on though, weren't you the one warbling on about your team spirit, resolve, tenacity etc. etc. when your side was making a habit of returning from overseas adventures and grinding out at least a point - a record they kept up for 21 games in fact? Back from the San Siro and the game of our lives - to win at Charlton. Stick three past Leverkusen in Germany and come back to do the same to Leeds. Remember those? If anything encapsulates the drop in standards, discipline and desire this season it's that.

Bowyer may not have been able to play, but Viana's cameo appearance in Mallorca could surely have seen him get a go here from the start, to give us a break from Jenas and Speed perfecting their impressions of running through treacle. 

No, our Portuguese maestro wouldn't be quite suited to this sort of game. The question has to be asked though, precisely what game would he be suited to? If we cannot play £8.5m of allegedly creative midfielder against journeymen lumberers of the type found here, where can we play him? 

If we're so brittle that Speed had to turn out in Spain when by rights he should have been rested then what progress have we truly made in two years? The pro-Viana set insist he's never had a run in the side and a go in his preferred position - who's fault is that? The bloke who bought him and the bloke who picks the team.

That bloke obviously believes that a preening so-called wonderboy is deemed incapable of unlocking a defence anchored by a one-legged man we once put eight past at SJP and partnered by a bloke who played for us in Division Two three decades ago. 

Oh no, my mistake, you can come on and do it in 18 minutes along with your mates Darren and Shola - because you're young guns, you're top men and Bobby is cleverer than us mere mortals. Hmmmm....

So we stand and watch a parade of gutless pretty boys (I'll exclude Given, Woodgate and Taylor from this and to a certain extent Shearer) slave away without the merest hint of inspiration, only able to mount attacks when bypassing midfield to find even a semblance of movement in the final third (presumably playing football in the midfield has now been outlawed by the EU - if it's not howked over the top then we've exercised our veto and opted out apparently.) 

We couldn't paper over the cracks today - Bellamy, Bramble and Shearer missed the chances that would have kept this charade going for another week or two. By showing a modicum of intelligence and flexibility, Allardyce was rewarded. By showing that we're completely disjointed and disunited, we left empty-handed. And by the end, the mood of the toon fans was as black as the toon shirts.

The publicising of a new contract for Bobby continues to puzzle us.  Previous announcements had it that he was on a year's rolling deal, now the weeks are counting down to the carriage clock. Now, didn't Monseiur Tigana at Fulham and wee Gordon Strachan go down the same road of confirming their departure dates, only to revise that within a very short space of time?

We're told Robson will have money to spend in the summer - only time will tell whether that's dependent on Champions League qualification or is nothing more than bluster and hot air. At this moment in time, I wouldn't trust his judgement to buy a pair of shoes. Let's hope Everton are as flaky as us.