There was a time when Michael Owen routinely returned to Anfield
with his head held high but the Newcastle United striker has suggested
he is virtually resigned to defeat there on Sunday. With no goals
in his past nine appearances for the relegation-threatened Tyneside
team Owen is currently a shadow of the young striker who made his
name at Liverpool. Indeed, following Monday night's 0–0 home draw
with Portsmouth his critics are urging Alan
Shearer to drop him to the bench at Anfield.
"We go to Liverpool next and we finish the season at Aston Villa
and, if we can get some points from those games, then of course
we'll grasp them," said Owen. "But, being realistic, it's the home
games [against Middlesbrough and Fulham] that are our major focus
now."
Shearer's four-game tenure at St James' Park has yielded two
points and a solitary goal, though against Portsmouth Owen spurned
an excellent chance to improve that record. Newcastle's stand-in
manager, whose side are three points behind fourth-bottom Hull
City, has diagnosed a lack of self-belief on the striker's part.
"Confidence in football is huge," he said. "But we know if we keep
creating chances for Michael one will go in."
Unfortunately, right now, Newcastle seem better at conjuring
moments of crass embarrassment. Just before kick-off on Monday
night Graeme Danby, a Geordie opera singer, led an on-pitch
rendition of Blaydon Races before crudely patronising the
smattering of Portsmouth fans who had made the journey north, a
round trip of 800 miles and 18 hours. "Have you come in a fucking
car?" bellowed the microphone-wielding Danby before further
taunting them with: "You're the Mackems of the south coast."
Pompey will not be making an official complaint but they were
distinctly unimpressed. "It wasn't good," said a club spokesman
yesterday. "It was unnecessary, cringe-making and embarrassing. The
guy clearly got carried away."
Should Newcastle get carried away to the Championship, though,
they could be punished for neglecting to insert clauses in their
players' contracts stipulating a drop in wages in that
eventuality.
Not that Shearer is resigned to such a fate. "Everybody will
write us off at Liverpool," he said. "I understand that. But I saw
Liverpool win at Hull last Saturday and they didn't play
particularly well. Going for the title, they are under pressure
too. You never know in football."
