Robson: Magpies to clinch Euro spot

Newcastle 1 Aston Villa 1

The 70-year-old was devastated as a bad defensive slip allowed Aston Villa substitute Dion Dublin to cancel out Nolberto Solano’s first-half free-kick with a header that snatched a point for the visitors.

Worse was to follow when Robson’s dejected troops arrived back in the dressing room to discover that Chelsea’ 4-1 demolition of Everton at Stamford Bridge had demoted them from the Premiership’s top three for the first time since January 18.

However, Robson is targeting successive victories over Sunderland, Birmingham and West Brom to ensure the European big time comes to St James’ Park once again: “I said two weeks ago that we needed three victories and a draw from the next five games to ensure it. Well, we’ve got one, so it would appear that we need three victories from the last three games.

“On paper, that’s capable of doing it, but we don’t play on paper. Yes, we’ve dropped two points and it’s disappointing, but it’s gone and we just have to look forward to the next three games.

“Nine points will do it, but it might be less because I’m saying nine points on the basis that all the other teams pick up maximum points as well.

Newcastle went in front with 37 minutes gone through Solano’s inch-perfect free-kick, but they were guilty of dreadful marking at the back to allow Dublin time and space to level. Their misery was compounded by the loss of skipper Alan Shearer with a head wound which was twice stitched and Jonathan Woodgate’s hamstring problem, and their fortunes did not improve any at the death when substitute Lomana LuaLua’s shot came back off the post with keeper Peter Enckelman beaten.

Villa boss Graham Taylor was delighted with his side’s fightback after admitting that he could not see where a goal would come from before the break.

“I thought it was a good point for us, one that we never looked like we were going to get in the first half,” he said. “The 90 minutes today has pretty well represented our very inconsistent season. In the first half, we played as though we were very much letting things happen and in the second half, we played to make things happen.

NEWCASTLE: Given, Griffin, Woodgate (Bramble 52), O’Brien, Bernard (LuaLua 73), Solano, Dyer, Hughes, Viana, Shearer (Ameobi 74), Bellamy.

ASTON VILLA: Enckelman, Mellberg, Staunton, Johnsen, Samuel, Edwards (Taylor 33), Hitzlsperger (Dublin 65), Leonhardsen, Barry (Whittingham 45), Allback, Vassell.

Referee: J Winter