It's a privilege to play for the Magpies, says impressive Craig

The footballing spotlight has remained firmly focused on St James' Park over the last eight days, starting with Kieron Dyer's refusal to play on the right side of midfield for the Magpies at Middlesbrough.

Dyer was subsequently booed while playing for England against Ukraine on Tyneside before issuing an apology to manager Sir Bobby Robson, the club and the fans.

On the same day Jonathan Woodgate was on his way out of Newcastle in a shock £13.4m move to Real Madrid.

To many watchers just another week in the soap opera that is Newcastle United, and the Wales international wouldn't have it any other way.

"Newcastle is always news," said the 25-year-old who is himself not averse to creating his own headlines.

"It always will be. It's the way it's run - the people we have upstairs are very media friendly.

"At a club like Newcastle it's always like that.

"It's been like that since I arrived.

"Everyone is interested in Newcastle.

"It's an old clich but we're probably everyone's second favourite club.

"Everyone always wants to know what's going on here. Always has been that way and always will be.

"We have a manager who goes out to speak to the press and a happy chairman who does it as well.

"Sometimes if you bite you get bitten.

"It's always been a goldfish bowl."

Bellamy rounded off a busy week himself on Saturday with a man-of-the-match performance despite his side going down 1-0 to Spurs.

The speedy striker followed his goal against Middlesbrough last weekend with another in Wales' 2-0 win over Latvia before returning back to Tyneside on Thursday morning.

Despite his club manager being far from pleased with Mark Hughes' decision to play him for the full 90 minutes in Riga, Bellamy, who has been plagued with knee problems, declared himself in great shape.

"I feel great.

"I feel in really, really good shape - the best I've felt for a long time.

"I feel fit and very strong. I'm just trying to work out how it's been such a great week and yet it's ended up like this.

"I've scored goals and it felt like everything was going great. I'm trying to get my head round how we've got beaten."

Saturday's game was Kieron Dyer's first for Newcastle United since the infamous non-starter at Middlesbrough.

The majority of the Newcastle fans drowned out any boos when he made his appearance as a 78th-minute substitute in central midfield, and Bellamy believes the Tyneside faithful are always firm - but fair.

He said: "Even today it was a privilege to play for Newcastle.

"The fans really behind you, especially when you're winning and everything's going well. They really get behind you. When things turn they can really let you know about it.

"If you do something wrong they will come down on you like a ton of bricks.

"The Geordies will let you know that you've let them down in no uncertain terms.

"But if they see you trying your heart out and you say sorry for what you've done wrong, then they'll see that you're genuine and they'll get behind you again.

"I feel we've let the fans down.

"You always get the occasional hiccup and today was one of them.

"Geordies always will forgive you. If you show gratitude they'll forgive you - they might not forget but they'll forgive you and they'll get behind you.

"You saw that with Kieron."

Read more about Newcastle United FC here.