Newcastle Boss, Joe Kinnear, came out strongly and backed his skipper, Michael Owen, in spite of the latter having a poor showing in the weekend game at the Riverside Stadium.
The 28-year old was at the end of major criticism during this weekend, as he failed to come up with a single shot on the goal against Middlesbrough in Saturday’s 0-0 derby draw.
Kinnear has reportedly supported Owen and strongly feels that his striker will be hitting the goals once again, as his talent is remarkable.
In an interview, the manager said, ‘Yes, Owen did have a quiet game, if you go by his general high standards.’
‘Still, his effort during the game was clearly visible to the coaching staff on the bench. All of us felt that he was doing the hard work and running unselfishly for the club.’
‘This was backed up when we went through the video of the Saturday game. We studied performance of each individual and saw how Owen went about his job.’
‘The only regret with the Middlesbrough game was that the chances, which were created, never reached Michael’s path, so that he could convert them. However, this wasn’t necessary his fault.’
‘He was always running to get himself in a goal scoring position. However, he was just never able to get the ball in the right place. This is something that we’ll have to work on, if we are looking to end any game on a high.’
