Shearer sees red at Barton sending-off

May 4 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

The Magpies have had just 11 shots on goal – only one going in – during Shearer’s five matches in charge, but it was at the other end where their biggest problems lay yesterday.

Liverpool punished their inability to close down or mark opponents, and hit Steve Harper’s crossbar as many times as they scored. With their rivals failing to pick up points, Newcastle have not lost ground in the battle to escape relegation – but nor have they made up any.

With three games remaining – the next at home to Middlesbrough – the gap to Hull City, who play at Aston Villa this evening, is three points.

Shearer was not disguising the scale of the defeat but argued it was not a significant setback to Newcastle’s hopes.

“The best team won, I’ve no complaints,” he said. “I thought the first goal was offside but I don’t think it would have changed the course of the game. But this game wasn’t going to seal our fate, it’s the next two. Nothing’s changed.

“They hit the bar three times, when you look at it that way I suppose we were lucky to keep it at three.

“I was disappointed with the way the goals came about. The first one I thought was offside and the second and third one came from set pieces. That’s not me griping, we would have lost anyway.

“But players were given players to pick up (at set pieces) and didn’t. That’s the disappointing thing.” Shearer dropped Michael Owen (pictured below) to the bench, explaining his captain was a victim of United’s inability to create chances.

“We haven’t been creating chances, that’s been a problem,” said Owen’s friend and former strike partner. “Is Oba (Martins, who played) more likely to score from 15, 20 yards than Michael? Probably. We knew we’d be likely to be feeding on scraps, if anything.

“Today’s game was always going to be very difficult to try and score in, because they’re a very, very good team. But it doesn’t mean I’m not very disappointed.”