Robson braced for more Bellamy flak

Newcastle manager Bobby Robson is bracing himself for more flak should striker Craig Bellamy return to bolster his side’s line-up at Manchester United tomorrow.

Robson has stated Bellamy had no chance of being fit for Wales’ 2-0 European Championship qualifying victory over Azerbaijan on Wednesday due to a knee injury.

Although Robson played down talk of a club-versus-country row, there is the possibility Bellamy will be fit to travel to Old Trafford, where the Magpies have lost their last three league matches.

“Craig Bellamy is making progress,” said Robson. “He trained last Friday and had a slight reaction then following the Feyenoord game on Wednesday.

“So he’s training Monday, resting Tuesday, training Wednesday, resting Thursday, training Friday and hopefully, we’ll see what he’s like tomorrow to decide whether we play him.

“When the knee settles down, that two games per week might come into his lifestyle – we hope it will. But at the moment, it’s not a possibility.

“It’s not forever. It will be when Craig says ‘Hey, my knee is fine. I’ve played Saturday and I can play Wednesday’.

“Craig Bellamy will tell you that he couldn’t have played Wednesday and he couldn’t have played yesterday, and we’re taking the brunt of that because people think we’re stopping the player from playing for his country. That’s not the situation.”

Victory for Newcastle will see them leapfrog Manchester United into fifth and with a game in hand on the four teams above them.

Wes Brown is hoping to put his injury nightmare behind him and finally establish himself as an Old Trafford regular.

The England defender made a shock first-team return in the 1-1 draw at West Ham on Sunday after over three months on the sidelines.

Brown fractured an ankle in the opening minutes of the Champions League qualifier against Zalaegerszeg, the latest in a series of fitness problems, which include a ruptured cruciate knee ligament which ruled him out of the entire 1998-99 Treble-campaign.

“It was a bit of a shock to play at West Ham but I had expected to be part of the squad because we have so many injuries,” Brown told MUTV.

“Hopefully now I can concentrate on my football rather than recovering from injuries myself.”

Birmingham striker Paul Devlin is hoping the real City will emerge when they head to the Stadium of Light to face a Sunderland side steadily improving under boss Howard Wilkinson.

The Blues have lost four of their last eight matches, but in the goalless draw with Fulham last weekend, Scotland international Devlin saw his side’s fighting qualities again emerge.

“Probably for the last month we haven’t played as well as in the first part of the season,” said Devlin.

“We stopped doing the things that got us that good start, being aggressive and closing teams down, but I felt against Fulham that we were a little bit back to our old selves and we want that to carry on.”

With just five points separating the bottom 11 clubs, a win for Sunderland could see them shoot up several places, while a defeat could lead to them plunging into the bottom three.

Yet after an unbeaten run of five matches in the league and cup, confidence is returning to the Black Cats under Wilkinson, although the wily campaigner remains guarded.

“It’s important to keep good runs going and it was nice to get a clean sheet again at Liverpool after the clean sheet in the previous game with Tottenham,” said Wilkinson.

“That will do confidence no harm, but we could put that run at risk tomorrow, so it’s important we can’t take anything for granted.”