By Matthew Jones
May 4 2004

Newcastle currently lie in 6th place in the Premiership table, with Liverpool and Aston Villa taking up 4th and 5th place respectively. As the season draws to an end, the Magpies' are still in contention for a place in the UEFA Cup final, and a place in next seasons Champions League.

You could argue that this season has been somewhat dissapointing, especially away from home, but all has to be forgotten.  A trip to Marseille this week will decide Newcastle's UEFA Cup fate, before games against Wolves (h), Southampton (a) and Liverpool (a) will detirmin wether or not the Magpies' will be playing in the Champions League next year.

Chairman Freddy Shepherd is wanting Robson's men to finnish the season on a high - and make it all worthwhile.

Shepherd said:

"If you think like a winner, you will be a winner, and if you think like a loser, you will be a loser - and Geordies are winners.

"We still have everything to play for this season and now is the time for everyone to get behind Sir Bobby Robson and his squad. And not only that, but everything is not only in our own hands, but also in our own grasp and we can still do it.

"As far as the UEFA Cup is concerned - although I sincerely hope this is not the case and we do send our best wishes to Chelsea - we could be the only British team left in Europe by Thursday morning.

"In the Premiership, we still have that game in hand over Liverpool and Aston Villa and if we win it, everything is back in our favour. We have a home game with Wolves on Sunday, and while we are taking nothing for granted, we do have a great record at St James' Park since the turn of the year.

"Liverpool are at Birmingham on Saturday, which is never an easy place to go, while Aston Villa are down at Southampton. Steve Bruce will be wanting to beat Liverpool for his own team, but don't forget, he's also a Geordie and he will want to win for us as well.

"Everybody knows that we have injuries and they are genuine injuries. We cannot do a lot about them, but we still have enough quality in the squad to end the season on a high. By Sunday night, we could be looking at a completely different picture."