I can handle the pressure, says injury-hit Magpies’ boss

NEWCASTLE boss Graeme Souness has brushed off suggestions that he is under pressure as he attempts to halt his club’s alarming slide down the Barclays Premiership table.

The 51-year-old Scot will send the Magpies out at former club Blackburn on Boxing Day with a crippling injury list threatening to hamper his efforts to improve upon a return of just five points from the last 24 on offer, a statistic which graphically illustrates their downward spiral into 13th place.

Only victory at Ewood Park would start to placate the restless natives on Tyneside, some of whom have already passed judgment on the man drafted in to replace Sir Bobby Robson back in September.

But Souness, who has survived heart surgery and upheaval in his private life, insists that his shoulders are broad enough to take it all. “I don’t see it that way. I know I am at a big club with big pressure. We have played 19 games and we have lost six games and that is the price on the ticket at this club and at any big club.

“I have been in a couple of extremely difficult situations in my life where the pressure was really on and I know how I dealt with it - I am not talking about footballing issues - I know how I dealt with it.

“This is not pressure, this is not pressure. I see myself as being extremely lucky to be working at one of the best football clubs in the world, and the excitement and the thought of what we can achieve here is with me every minute of the day I am at work.”

Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Liverpool worsened the Magpies’ plight and left their chances of claiming European football next season, let alone the Champions League berth they crave, hanging in the balance.

The manager was less than happy with the way his side capitulated after the Reds hit back to cancel out Patrick Kluivert’s opening goal and then take the lead, and told them so in no uncertain terms.

He has struggled to work on specifics during the ensuing few days with the injury toll showing few signs of abating, but he fully expects a positive reaction at Blackburn. “We have not had them because they have always been in the treatment room, but I am sure we will get that.”

Newcastle will cross the Pennines once again without influential skipper Alan Shearer, who is between two and four weeks away from a return from his thigh problem, the suspended Lee Bowyer and long-term absentees Nicky Butt, Stephen Carr and Ronny Johnsen, although Craig Bellamy, Kieron Dyer and Kluivert have all shaken off knocks and Laurent Robert will also be included.

Speculation continues over the club’s transfer window targets - Jean-Alain Boumsong remains on the list, but Fernando Morientes is not - and Souness promised the fans that the wheels are turning.