GRAEME Souness last night backed calamity keeper Steve Harper, and insisted he has no qualms about keeping him in his side for Thursday night's UEFA Cup decider in Lisbon.

Harper made only his second Premiership appearance of the season at White Hart Lane yesterday, and his 42nd-minute howler teed up Jermain Defoe for the only goal of the game.

Celestine Babayaro's backpass seemed safe enough, but Harper struck it against Simon Davies before the rebound bounced kindly for Defoe for score.

The 30-year-old was furious as he left the field at half-time and, with just three days in which to clear his head before United play the second leg of their European quarter-final, yesterday's error could have serious repercussions later this week.

But, after admitting he had "no idea" whether Shay Given's hip injury would keep him out of action on Thursday night, Souness expressed his confidence in Harper's ability to bounce back.

"He's a big boy and he will have to deal with it," said the Magpies manager, who remains hopeful that Titus Bramble will recover from his hernia problem in time to line up in Lisbon.

"No-one is pointing the finger at him because he is an extremely popular member of the dressing room.

"To concede the goal in the way we did was disappointing, but we can't be hard on Harps.

"He plays so few games that it's hard to pick up the pace, especially given everything that's going on in a Premier League game. Playing reserve-team football doesn't help you prepare for that.

"What I would say is that Harps is normally an exceptional kicker of the ball.

"He is a fantastic kicker - he might even be the best kicker of the ball at the club. That's a fact. He is a beautiful striker of the ball and this is just one of those things."

Harper's mistake came at the end of a first half in which Newcastle looked to have stifled their opponents' striking threat.

But, while Defoe made the most of the opportunity that came his way, Newcastle substitute James Milner was unable to take similar advantage when a mix-up between Paul Robinson and Ledley King presented him with a golden opportunity after the break.

"The game was about two goalkeepers making two mistakes," said Souness.

"We got punished for ours, but they got away with theirs.

"It wasn't a great game of football but, after our efforts on Thursday, we came here with a game-plan.

"We weren't going to chase it, we were going to sit and see what Tottenham could do.

"I think we weathered what storm there was in the first half and I was thinking 'That will do, 0-0 at half-time and we can maybe have a go at them after the break'. Sadly, that wasn't to be."

Milner was on the field in place of Alan Shearer, after the Newcastle skipper failed to reappear for the second half because of a dead leg.

"The idea was to give him (Shearer) an hour," revealed Souness. "He played the full 90 minutes against Sporting and had a very good game.

"He even started to run into the channels again which, at his age, is ridiculous!

"I wanted to give him an hour and then take him off but this week is so important to us that I decided to do it at half-time."

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