MOUSSA Sissoko has backed Papiss Cissé to bury his frustrating campaign and hit the goal trail again when Newcastle United return to action next week.

Cissé’s season has not been the soar-away success that he enjoyed after joining the Magpies last year, with the Senegalese forced to endure some difficult days in front of goal.

Thursday night’s outing against Metalist Kharkiv was another one of those, with the striker seeing two goals chalked off in a contentious first leg of United’s Europa League knock-out clash against the Ukrainian side.

He has scored seven goals in 31 appearances this season – not a bad record, but not close to the soaring standards he set last term.

Cissé still seems to be recovering his confidence from a difficult start to the year which also saw him moved around the frontline to accommodate former team-mate Demba Ba, who was in fantastic form before his January switch to Chelsea.

United signalled their faith in the forward by signing players to play off Cissé rather than to replace him, with Yoan Gouffran one of those who was recruited to complement the former Freiburg man.

But it is Sissoko who is playing the support role for Cissé, and the France international is convinced that United’s number nine will come good sooner rather than later.

“He is a very good goalscorer and gets in such good positions that he gets a lot of chances in a match,” he said.

“On Thursday it was not his night, he just could not score – or at least he could not score a goal that was allowed.