Going down Toon?

Cottee: fears for Newcastle

Relegation is a real possibility at the moment. They've got to sort it out off the pitch, they've got to get a permanent manager in as soon as possible.

Tony Cottee
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Newcastle 1-2 Blackburn
Soccer Saturday analysis

Tony Cottee feels Newcastle have big problems on the pitch as well as off it following their 2-1 home defeat to Blackburn.

Christopher Samba and Roque Santa Cruz scored in the first half to inflict more misery on Newcastle, who briefly rallied thanks to a Michael Owen penalty shortly after the break.

But Rovers held on for the three points and Cottee told Soccer Saturday that Newcastle simply couldn't recover from a 'dreadful' opening 45 minutes in their first game since Joe Kinnear was named interim manager.

"In the first half I can't tell you how bad they were; they were dreadful," Cottee said.

"The defending was awful and they conceded a header from a free-kick. Maybe Samba was offside, but when it's going against you then you don't get those decisions.

"After that they left too much space for Brett Emerton on the right-hand side and he put a ball to the far post for a really good header from Santa-Cruz back across the keeper.

"Newcastle didn't have one shot in the first half so they couldn't have got any worse.

"Joe must have gone in at half time and I don't know whether he rattled into them or gave them a bit of a pick-me-up, but they came out much better in the second half.

"Owen was fouled for the penalty, a definite penalty, and they scored and you were thinking: 'go on, take the game to them, go and create some chances'.

"But I don't think they had the quality. There was plenty of effort but they didn't create the chances."

Limited

Cottee feels Newcastle's forwards Michael Owen and Damien Duff performed admirably, but a lack of quality service from midfield meant their opportunities were limited.

"They had problems getting the service into Michael Owen. I'm a huge fan of Michael Owen and I think if you give him the chances he will score the goals.

"A lot of the time the ball was up around his shoulders and he's not going to win headers.

I thought he did really well, he held the ball up and did what he could under difficult circumstances.

"It was nice to see Damien Duff in form again as well, he had a really good game for them.

"But defensively and in midfield the service was poor, the midfielders had no real quality there.

"It's a difficult job not just for Joe but for whoever comes in to manage Newcastle."

Cottee denied that Newcastle adopted the long-ball football that was Kinnear's trademark in his days at Wimbledon, but unless they supply better ammunition to Owen then they could be facing a relegation scrap this season.

"It wasn't so much route one, just a lack of quality," he added.

"It's quite obvious that if you've got a lad up front who's 5ft8 don't put the ball up in the air to him.

"Michael's not as quick as he used to be and if you put it down towards the corner flag he's not going to win the race now.

"They've got to get better service into the front players I feel.

"Relegation is a real possibility at the moment. They've got to sort it out off the pitch, they've got to get a permanent manager in as soon as possible.

"Joe's a nice bloke, he'll do his best and he'll do a decent job in difficult circumstances, but they need to sort it out."