Roeder will need to revive old tricks

Newcastle Crisis: As a footballer Glenn Roeder was famous for his shuffle, a stepover that would extricate the languid central defender from potentially troublesome situations. At Newcastle United, where Roeder played for six years in the 1980s, they loved him for that trick.

If he can shuffle Newcastle out of a relegation battle, Thursday's dismissal of Graeme Souness will look even smarter than it does now.

There was no sense of euphoria at Newcastle's training ground yesterday morning post-Souness, but neither was anyone dressed in black. Roeder and Alan Shearer - who is assisting the manager rather than assistant manager - stressed the only constant thing in football was change. Souness is gone and Portsmouth arrive at St James' Park this afternoon.

But if Souness's departure has done one thing other than put a spring in the step of Geordie fans, it is to focus attention back on the team and the plight they are in. A 12th defeat in 24 games today would ram home the reality that Newcastle are in a relegation fight. This is a group of players which has not won a league match since the week before Christmas and not scored in any of the five defeats since.

"I think we are in a relegation battle, yeah," Shearer acknowledged yesterday. "We have got to get points on the board sooner rather than later. Anyone who feels differently is not seeing it correctly. All too often I've seen clubs get dragged down when they are not admitting they are in a battle. We're in a battle, we have to roll our sleeves up. But I know our public will be behind us tomorrow, we've got to give them something to shout about."

Shouting is not something Newcastle's famous support has done of late. In Manchester on Wednesday night they trooped out after witnessing Newcastle's ninth away loss with barely a whimper. One "Souness Out" banner was hoisted but a worrying acceptance had buried itself among the majority. Today Portsmouth might just be greeted by a mood of revival.

"Tangible relief among even those who are not diehards," was how Mike Bolam of the fans' website nufc.com said most fans greeted news of Souness's dismissal. "It wasn't that Souness wasn't a Geordie - neither was Kevin Keegan - but people just didn't trust Souness. No one was impressed with his ugly Blackburn team.

"But Roeder-Shearer begin with the same players and a ball hasn't been kicked yet. Owen is still injured and Boumsong still stands in the wrong place, so this might only be temporary respite. And if things were to go wrong in the coming weeks, Alan Shearer might discover that what he always says is true: no one is bigger than the club."

Shearer, 35, understood to be a little reluctant to be so prominent, knows he is taking a risk with his reputation and that is no small matter to him. However, describing Shearer as formidable does not really do him justice and he brought no illusions with him yesterday. Recalling that a talented West Ham team, managed by Roeder, accumulated 42 points in 2003 and still went down, Shearer said: "Yeah, Glenn told us yesterday that it makes him laugh when he hears people say they've got to get 40 points."

At present Newcastle have 26. Roeder has seen them a handful of times this season. As academy director his weekends have been spent trying to find the next generation to carry the burden of Tyneside expectation and with his younger-than-the-opposition players reaching the last eight of the FA Youth Cup this week, Roeder has shown he is capable of forging progress.

Roeder joked yesterday he might be the first manager to win the FA Cup and Youth Cup in the same season, "but Newcastle will still have to find a new person even if I turn things around".

At 50, having been forced to retire from West Ham due to a brain tumour that turned out to be benign, Roeder has ruled himself out of the post long-term, even if the FA Cup was to be won. "I'm capable of doing the job for one day, one week, one month, whatever," Roeder said. "When football clubs have a caretaker, usually the first question asked is: do they want the job? They answer no, but they really do. But I don't and that's the truth.

"I managed in the Premiership for two years. The first season was West Ham United's third highest ever finish in 100 years; people were reasonably impressed and so they should be. Then it went pear-shaped and we went down with 42 points - which is a record that will never be beaten. Then I had my health scare."

But, Roeder reassured, he is now well and able and he finished with a rallying call: "This is a great job, not scary. If you've got something about you, this is a job to die for. They talk about football in Argentina and Brazil being a religion but when clubs fall away there, their crowds fall. Not here, the crowd's our 12th man. I'm absolutely certain we can do it with them."

Meanwhile, Freddy Shepherd, the Newcastle chairman, said yesterday the club will not rush into naming a new manager. "Glenn Roeder and Alan Shearer are quite capable of getting us through to the end of the season," he said. "There is no hurry. We don't want to be rushed into giving it to the wrong man, we'll be very careful."

Rejecting accusations of bad timing in sacking Graeme Souness, he said: "We had to act because we have to start winning again." He added: "Of course people want the job. It's one of the biggest in world football, why shouldn't they?"