Sport 15-04-2005 Newcastle Run Out of Options who: Newcastle United what: Beaten 4-1 (4-2 on aggregate) bu Sporting Lisbon in UEFA Cup quarter final second leg where: Lisbon, Portugal when: Thursday night snippet: "A day that began acrimoniously for Newcastle thanks to a feud between manager Graeme Souness and outspoken winger Laurent Robert ended in bitter disappointment," writes Rob Stewart in The Telegraph, "as the club`s pursuit of the UEFA Cup was emphatically ended in the Portuguese capital." "I don`t think we are playing as well as we were last season. We have been very bad in the last three games," said Robert on Wednesday, quoted in The Sun. "We were awful when we lost 3-0 to Aston Villa, we did not play well against Sporting in the first leg and then we lost at Tottenham and did not play any good football." The visitors were relying on their one goal lead when the whistle blew for the kick-off of Thursday night`s UEFA Cup quarter final second leg, but went on to lose 4-1 on the night (4-2 on aggregate). "Newcastle were never insipid against Sporting Lisbon, as they had been in Marseilles [when they were knocked out in the semi-final last season], but a desperate run of injuries and a ceaseless courting of painful headlines may have caught up with them," says George Caulkin in The Times. "They will need to raise bowed heads and battered bodies before Sunday`s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United." "Until the final quarter in the Alvalade arena, the Magpies looked set fair for the Uefa Cup semi-finals and a less than daunting meeting with AZ Alkmaar," says The Independent`s Simon Turnbull. "Kieron Dyer put Newcastle ahead, slotting between Ricardo`s legs but Marius Niculae equalised with a powerful header," says the BBC. "After the break, Sa Pinto knocked in the rebound from Pedro Barbosa`s shot and Beto headed his side`s third. Fabio Rochemback sealed the victory late on with a cool finish." [... more]

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