Kinnear facing cold Christmas

MAYBE Paul Ince had a point.

The Blackburn manager was widely derided last week for complaining at the pressure being loaded onto his shoulders while Joe Kinnear was being widely indulged, but the Newcastle manager’s luck might not hold.

The Dubliner might have been given a contract until the end of the season by Mike Ashley, but nobody on Tyneside is suggesting he is immune from criticism.

Yet another late collapse on home soil — the third time in five home games — cost Newcastle two precious points and means the club will confront Christmas plagued by dark thoughts of relegation.

It was impossible to gauge Kinnear’s mood afterwards. The 61-year-old refused to attend the post-match press conference after being sent to the stands — once again — for abusing the referee Mike Riley.

But you did not have to search hard to find frustration. “We were disappointed, really disappointed, because we didn’t play well,” Michael Owen said, his annoyance all the more acute as his double had given United a two-goal lead before half-time. “We had patches in the first half where we did all right, but we were probably fortunate to be 2-0 up, in my opinion anyway, at half-time.

“You think you are comfortable at 2-0, but all it takes is one goal and then they have got half an hour or however long left to try to snatch one. “We thought we had done it. It was getting into injury-time and we thought we had held on, and if we had held on, we would have been quite relieved to have not played well, but got three points.

“But as it is...we are going to have to pick up some good results away from home now to make up for it.”

Owen scored his seventh goal of the season with just nine minutes gone, expertly converting Jonas Gutierrez’s pass, and then made it eight with 24 minutes gone when he met Obafemi Martins’s driven cross at the far post.

However, Danny Guthrie’s departure at the break with a hip problem forced a reshuffle which left them ill-equipped to repel a concerted Stoke fightback. Substitute Ricardo Fuller set up Mamady Sidibe to reduce the deficit on the hour.

They looked to have survived as the clock ticked into five minutes of stoppage time, but Abdoulaye Faye, who was sold by Keegan during the summer, made up for missing two earlier opportunities to fire home the equaliser from close range after Sebastien Bassong had been penalised for a challenge on Fuller.

NEWCASTLE (4-4-2): Given 6, Beye 6, Coloccini 6, Bassong 6, Jose Enrique 5, N’Zogbia 6, Geremi 6 (Cacapa 82, 5), Guthrie 6 (Taylor 46, 7), Gutierrez 7, Owen 7, Martins 6 (Viduka 74, 5).

Subs Not Used: Harper, Xisco, Edgar, Carroll.

STOKE (4-4-2): Sorensen 6, Griffin 6, Sonko 5, Abdoulaye Faye 6, Higginbotham 6, Delap 5 (Fuller 57, 6), Amdy Faye 6 (Tonge 78, 5), Diao 5 (Whelan 21, 6), Pugh 6, Cresswell 6, Sidibe 7.

Subs Not Used: Simonsen, Olofinjana, Cort, Davies.

REFEREE: Mike Riley (Yorkshire) 6: Kinnear complained bitterly but there was little wrong with his performance.

MATCH RATING: *** A dramatic denouement, but Newcastle will be kicking themselves.