After Sunday’s 5-1 Barclays Premier League defeat by Liverpool, the club’s injury list has reached double figures and Joe admits that it’s been more or less a case of cancelling training and wrapping all of his players, and see if he can get 11 players to be fit for Hull’s match this weekend.

The only good news that Joe can cheers about is the French defender Sebastien Bassong will return from a one-match ban. Jose Enrique, Nicky Butt and Shola Ameobi all will have late fitness tests.

But Habib Beye will be sidelined for up to two months with a knee problem. Mark Viduka, Obafemi Martins, Claudio Cacapa and Joey Barton are among them who has a long-term injuries.

The Toon boss, on his New Year’s message said that he is keen to take Newcastle United to climb the Premier League table in 2009.

He feels that Newcastle side is still good enough to achieve a respectable position in the second period of the campaign despite all the lengthy injury list.

“I’m proud of what we have achieved so far, and I feel we can build on it.” He said, as quoted from the Chronicle, “I am only looking ahead and only look upwards, and I think we can get a respectable finish because this division is just so close.”

Meanwhile, Shay Given has insisted he is not going to leave the St James’s Park after serving the Toon for as long as 12 seasons. Shay is contracted with Newcastle until 2011.

According to a source close to the 32-year-old goalkeper, who told the Chronicle, Shay always given his all for Newcastle United, and that will never change.

Being frustrated at how things had gone on the pitch against Liverpool was the reason why he left the field so quickly, but to say he’s unhappy at Newcastle is 100 % wrong.

Another report suggesting that Inter Milan’s coach Jose Mourinho could make a move for the Magpies’ skipper and was offering one of his players in a swap deal. Owen is now free to talk to other clubs, but insisted he wants to wait until the end of this season before making it clear about his future at Tyneside.

Despite making better use of our chances we still conceded possession too easily in that 1st half, when I thought we struggled in midfield.

However, we stuck at it, and getting the 1st goal changed the game in much the same way it did in the home game vs Villa – our confidence visibly soared, we got a grip in midfield and ended the game well on top.

As for Enrique, I thought he was poor to start with, but improved as the game proceeded and he had a really good 2nd half.

Apart from one howler when he passed the ball straight to an opponent well inside our half, I thought Coloccini had a much better game today. N’Zogbia had a very quiet 1st half, but looked more like his old self in the 2nd when he started running at his full-back.

I thought our defence looked well organised, and the problems we did have generally arose from losing possession in bad areas. Bassong had another good game; his uncomplicated style and aerial ability compliments Colloccini’s game very well.

Owen worked his nuts off and took his goal superbly, not to say very bravely as he really got clattered. The Sky geniuses blamed Calamity for Martins’ goal, whereas the ‘slo-mo’ showed he actually dummied James into going to ground before side-footing it past him.

What’s more his 25 yard swinging scorcher in the 1st half that struck the inside of James’ left hand post would have been a candidate for Goal of the Season. I can see some signs that under JFK’s direction Oba is beginning to become a better team player. Let’s just hope he hasn’t incurred a serious injury.

Our first away win, and a very solid team performance against a big, physical team that are usually a handful on their own ground will hopefully provide a turning point in this dreadful season.

Seeing a much stronger team and bench than had been reported only yesterday, also provides a degree of comfort. What’s more Xisco is fit again!

Owen’s present contract will end next summer, and starting from next January, he will be free to negotiate with any club who may be interested to offload him from Newcasle United, according to the Bosman rule.

Miles Starforth writes on his column at Shield Gazette today that United has already set sights on who will be Owen’s replacement in case he’s out of SJP. The Wolfsburg’s German Under-21 international striker Ashkan Dejagah is one of them.

Ashkan Dejagah (born July 5, 1986 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian-born German and he currently plays for VfL Wolfsburg as a striker. His professional debut for Wolfs is againt VfL Bochum in the opening match of 2004-2005.

Playing for the last five minutes for his only first team appearance that year, he was also becoming the youngest player to ever play for the club since it was founded in 1892. In 2004 after being called to play for Germany’s u-19 national team, Dejagah scores seven goals in 15 international games.

Newcastle took the lead in 21 minutes, thanks to Charles N’Zogbia effort, although the goal was later being describe as an own goal, but Zog deserves the credit in the process.

17 minutes later, James Milner doubled the Magpies lead with a shot from the right which catches out keeper Marshall with the ball bouncing beyond his dive and into the far corner.

The home side get one goal inside the injury time before the half-time break through Clinton Morrison from a swift City breakaway.

In the second-half we look comfortable to get through to the third round as we control the game much, and have Michael Owen coming into the field in the 75min replacing Geremi. But the referee seems not in the rush to blow the final whistle even the clock get runs into the 3rd minutes into the injury time that was scheduled for just two minutes.

Desperately looking for the equaliser, City win a throw in on the right into the penalty area, where their skipper Scott Dann arriving with pace to head low into the bottom corner with Shay Given rooted to the spot.

In the first half of the extra time, Newcastle took the second advantage in 97minutes when City players fail to clear N’Zogbia corner. And just like the Bolton match, this time Enrique took the loose ball 40 yards out before sending a delightful pass over the top for Owen to race on to before finishing side-footed past the on-rushing Marshall. 3-2 for Newcastle!

The City players then keep rushing to get back into the game and force it into penalty shoot-out, and they almost got it when in two minutes before the end of extra time Shay Given saves Simpson’s low strike, and rebound to safety before Morrison can take the loose ball.

Coventry City FC:
Andy Marshall, Marcus Hall, Danny Fox, Elliott Ward, Scott Dann (c), Guillaume Beuzelin, Aron Gunnarsson, Leon McKenzie, Michael Mifsud, Clinton Morrison, Jay Tabb
Subs: Danny Ireland, Michael Doyle, Julian Gray, Ben Turner, Robbie Simpson, Kevin Thornton, Jordon Clarke

Newcastle United FC:
Shay Given, Habib Beye, Jose Enrique, Fabricio Coloccini, Sebastien Bassong, Nicky Butt (c), Danny Guthrie, Geremi, Charles N’Zogbia, James Milner, Jonas Gutierrez
Subs: Michael Owen, Steve Harper, Steven Taylor, David Edgar, Ryan Donaldson, Nile Ranger

Referee: A Bates
Attendance: 19,249

These series of rumours have been connected by the fact that Newcastle will do a heavy cut of player wages and make reinforcement to build younger and fresher team squad. The sale of Milner has been suggested for ca. £5m – and both Liverpool and Everton are interested.

Our friends at Newcastle said, the propose to sell one of our younger, promising, and presumably lower paid members of the squad, if it’s true, will makes little sense to most of the Toon Army. If KK is thinking of parting with the lad, the only comfort we can draw from it is that KK sold Andy Cole – and was never afraid to sell anyone, no matter their stature in the squad, if he could see a way of improving things.

About our Turkey international midfielder Emre Belozoglu, currently under contract with until 2011 after joined Newcastle from Inter Milan for 3.8 million pounds in 2005, the AFP news today has made a report that Fenerbahce have agreed a deal with Newcastle.

Emre will sign a three-year contract with Fenerbahce worth 10.5 million euros (16.3 million dollars) next week. Other news is reporting Duff as one of mackems target.

Meanwhile, our skipper has new opinions about Kevin Keegan impact at Newcastle. From his latest interview with a media yesterday, Owen fancies KK to hit the ground running at the start of next season.

“It was never going to happen straight away. Not only did we have some tough games, but when he came we had a lot of players low on confidence. But if you could ever ask for a man to pick people up and get the best out of them, it’s Kevin Keegan.”

Owen think the more improvement to come from is that the Toon players are all enjoy training and playing alongside each other. Kevin has brought a real feelgood factor into the club. He is also backed Keegan to make four or five quality additions to the current Toon squad.

“He obviously knows his stuff. He can see a player, and he can see things that need tweaking. Tactically he is very good.” Owen added more, “And I think he has been a fantastic appointment for us, and we’ve all enjoyed his time so far.”