Souness to ‘dig deep’ as Newcastle faces fresh injury crisis

Fulham 1 Newcastle 0

The Magpies slipped to 13th in the Premiership table following Saturday’s defeat by Fulham, leaving them only nine points clear of the relegation zone.

And just when Souness thought it could not get any worse on the injury front, Titus Bramble and Stephen Carr were added to a casualty list which already includes Michael Owen, Scott Parker, Emre, Kieron Dyer, Craig Moore, Shola Ameobi and Steven Taylor.

Bramble failed a fitness test on an ankle problem yesterday morning while Carr failed to emerge for the second half because of stomach pains related to his recent hernia operation.

The latest setbacks have nudged Newcastle further into crisis and left Souness vowing to battle on.

“I’m an experienced football person. I’ve being doing this job for 20 years and I played for a long time before that. It can be a cruel game at times and you don’t always get what you deserve. Sometimes lady luck won’t shine on you and at this moment she’s not with us.

“Unless someone produces a magic wand and can guarantee we won’t get any more injuries, this is the situation we’re in.

“This is the hardest period I’ve been through in my career. I’ve never experienced injuries like this. The club has enormous expectations and right now we can’t fulfil those.

“The expectations are beyond us because as we speak we have 11 players injured and all of those guys would be part of our match day squad.

“The margins we have to operate in are so fine that just one player - such as Scott Parker, Michael Owen or Emre - might have made a huge difference to the game.

“Arsenal supporters are saying they’re not the same team without one player in Patrick Vieira and we’ve lost so many more.

Souness continued: “I look back and there’s not too much I’d want to change. I go to my family for support at times like this. I’m a big boy and when it’s not going well you have to dig deep. I’ve done that in the past and will continue to do that.”

However, Newcastle could have left Craven Cottage with all three points but for a crucial piece of defending from Nicolas Jensen.

Jensen cleared a 74th-minute Jean Alain Boumsong header off the line with goalkeeper Antti Niemi beaten and seconds later Fulham scored the game’s only goal.

Opta Fact: The Cottagers have won six of their last seven home Premiership games (drawing the other game).

Opta Fact: Newcastle has won only one of their 11 Premiership games without Michael Owen this season, but won six out of 10 with him.