Sam Allardyce has urged Obafemi Martins to forget his miss in Tuesday's 2-0 Carling Cup loss against Arsenal.
Magpies boss tells striker to forget miss
Newcastle United boss Sam Allardyce has urged Obafemi Martins to forget his miss in Tuesday's 2-0 Carling Cup loss against Arsenal.
The Magpies found themselves 1-0 down at the Emirates Stadium following Nicklas Bendtner's 83rd minute header, but within minutes Martins was presented with a glorious opportunity to level
The pacey forward rounded Lukasz Fabianski and rolled his shot towards goal, however Philippe Senderos stormed back to slide brilliantly off the line.
Injuries to Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi appear to have reopened the way for the Nigerian striker to become a regular starter, and Allardyce has backed Martins to bounce back from his miss.
Disappointed
"Oba was disappointed and I was disappointed for him, but chances come and go and strikers score some and miss some, and at least he was there to miss them," he told the Evening Chronicle.
"But what Oba cannot do is let this get him down. I told him he did great getting the ball past the keeper at Arsenal just after they scored, but then he didn't hit it hard enough and the defender got his shot off the line.
"It was a shame because for the next couple of days he is going to think it was all his fault.
Sharp
"But he cannot do that. This is a team game and we are all in this together. He knows that as a front man if he scores then he gets all the headlines and that if he doesn't score he gets different type of headlines.
"He will know that he could have had the right sort of headlines after Arsenal but what is really pleasing is that he is looking really sharp and really, really quick.
"At Arsenal we didn't get as much service to Oba as we would have liked and if we had he would have caused them a lot more trouble."
