ROBSON: Magpies' Need To Play With Freedom

By Matthew Jones
September 20 2003

Sir Bobby Robson is urging his Newcastle squad to forget about their poor start to the season as they take on Bolton on Saturday. Four years and one day after Robson's first home match in charge of United (an 8-0 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday) and 70-year-old Robson wants to silence his critics.

Robson said: "The three games we've lost, we've lost by the odd goal. We haven't been battered by anybody - we haven't lost away from home, by the way. We've lost three at home by the odd goal.

"The margin between success and failure is thin, so we've just got to get to the other side of the margin now.

"It won't be easy against Bolton because they're not a duff side. Sam Allardyce has done very well with exploring Europe.

"He's brought some goodish players - Jay-Jay Okocha can be anything and Youri Djorkaeff can be anything, Kevin Davies looks as if he's ignited his career a bit - so it's not going to be an easy game on Saturday.

"We beat them 1-0 last year here when we were flying and that wasn't easy, so it's going to be a scrap.

"There's a tension around the club. We've just got to try to play without pressure, relieve that tension and give a performance."