Siege Mentality At St James' Park!

"A lot will have been said and written over the last fortnight but myself and the players have to shut ourselves away from that as much as possible and concentrate on today's objective of beating Hull. That has been my sole focus this week.

"And the same applies to the players. We have a lot of experienced internationals in the squad and to a man, everyone of them knows that each time they pull on the black-and-white shirt they have a responsibility to perform to their very best for the Club and the supporters.

"The fans' support will be enormously important to us as always. In our last home game against Bolton Wanderers, the crowd stuck with us as we battled to break down tough opponents."