Shearer: No excuses for Cup exit

Newcastle have three huge matches in which to resurrect their season after seeing the chance to end a 35-year trophy famine ripped from their grasp.

Bobby Robson and his players jetted back from France today with the wounds of last night’s 2-0 UEFA Cup semi-final, second-leg defeat by Marseille still gaping.

However, they have no time to dwell on what might have been as they return to the business of Barclaycard Premiership battle and the task of securing European football for next season.

To do so, they will have to prosper once again without injured quartet Craig Bellamy, Kieron Dyer, Jonathan Woodgate and Jermaine Jenas, all of whom were badly missed at the Stade Velodrome last night.

However, skipper Alan Shearer is refusing to use the absence of key men as an excuse and said: “It doesn’t matter whether we missed injured players or not - they were not there so they could not have helped us.

“We conceded a silly goal in the first half from our own set-piece, but we got more into it in the second half without really troubling Fabien Barthez.”