A FRUSTRATED Graeme Souness says a combination of poor refereeing and inspired goalkeeping contributed to Newcastle's 4-1 defeat at St James' Park yesterday.

Rotherham referee Howard Webb missed a blatant foul on Alan Shearer seconds before Fulham opened the scoring through Collins John and then waved away what looked like a certain penalty when the United skipper was felled in the box two minutes later by Papa Bouba Diop.

The 51-year-old Scot took a veiled swipe at the referee and was visibly bewildered to how his side lost a game they dominated from start to finish.

He said: "I have not had the benefit of seeing the tape but I believe my players when they say it should have been a penalty and that it was a foul on Alan Shearer prior to their first goal.

"We have come away from the game losing 4-1 where we haven't played badly. At times when we were going forward we were fantastic. We have created fantastic chances, and lady luck wasn't with us, and we were very much against an inspired goalkeeper in Mark Crossley. I would hate to think I was going to have to suffer another display like this in another 35 years of being a professional. I feel extremely frustrated for myself and my players."

With the game slipping away from United at 2-0 down, Souness threw caution to the wind and made sure all his attacking players were on the field which made them vulnerable to Fulham counter-attacks.

"You can criticise me for chasing it when it was 2-0, I hold my hands up to that," said Souness. "My attitude at that time was was it going to be 3-0 or were we going to get it back to 2-2 and go on and win it? The idea was to get as many forward players onto the pitch as possible.

"We have not played badly today. We have had 60 per cent of the play; 19 corners against their none; we have had 26 shots at goal and 20 on target, and that does not include the blocks. We have peppered their goal throughout today and we're going home losing 4-1. It is a very frustrating day for anyone connected with Newcastle United."

Delighted Fulham boss Chris Coleman sympathised with his Newcastle counterpart after several decisions went in his favour.

"It is a difficult place to come but the ball bounced for us today, and a few decisions went our way when other days it wouldn't have.

"Our keeper was fantastic and at 1-0 we were hanging on in there and we managed to hit them on the counter-attack and it worked. When you look at the overall game Newcastle had way more possession and a lot more shots on goal but we took our chances today and that was the difference.

"This is possibly our biggest result of the season. Nobody comes to Newcastle and wins by two, three or four goals. It is a fantastic club and massive club but it was our day."

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