Keegan: defeat was cruel

Newcastle were defeated 1-0 by Blackburn on Saturday, and afterwards Toon boss Kevin Keegan admitted he felt the loss was unfair on his side. Matt Derbyshire scored the winning goal for Rovers in the final moments of the game.

"Football can be cruel," Keegan told Newcastle's official website.

"We could have come in two up at half-time - and we created four or five chances second half.

"We did not take our chances and Brad Friedel made important saves so to lose 1-0 was a real body blow for us and something the players didn't deserve.

"You can genuinely say to the players after a game like that that if we play like that to the end of the season we won't have any problems.

"We were inventive at times, we scrapped, we limited a very good Blackburn side to a couple of chances other than the goal."