Newcastle were beaten 3 - 1 by Fulham, but you've stayed within touching distance of the teams at the top of the league and since you're only 3 points behind the league leaders Liverpool, what lessons did you learn from the defeat?

It's obvious that we've been having difficulties getting into games. We've
already experienced this problem but now we have to do something about it. It's not normal to lose a match from the very start. We let Fulham play and after 30 minutes, we found ourselves in difficulties and we were 2 goals behind, defensively we were too kind, I find that very distressing.

What was Robson's reaction to this?

We had a meeting this morning and Bobby Robson told us that we have to
quickly get back to work, that we had an obligation to win and that we must show that on the pitch, he wants that we also enjoy the 90 minutes.

You won a penalty that Shearer didn't convert into a goal, can you take us through it?

Shearer knocked the ball down, and I made my run, Alain Goma made a tackle. I was first to the ball and he went straight into me. The ref blew for a penalty but it was very questionable (laughs) Honestly, if he had played on, we wouldn't have complained.

And finally, Shearer didn't put the ball in the back of the net.

Yes, and there the ref should have blown for another penalty, the keeper
deviated the ball on to the post, Shearer ran for the rebound and Goma
fouled him. Honestly, he should have got a penalty for that foul.

Why didn't you take the penalty yourself?

Because that's the way it is, Shearer has the penalty taking
responsibilities. But we'll wait and see what happens in the future.

What did you think of your performance?

I found it went well, I enjoyed myself and I'm starting to find my touch
again, I felt a lot better.

Do you have any regrets?

It's a shame that Shearer missed the penalty, we could have come back to 3 -2, and anything could have happened in a quarter of an hour.

What's on the agenda for this week?

We're in training tomorrow morning and on Wednesday we have the day off. On Thursday we get started on our preparation for the match against Derby County. Bye.
 
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