DISAPPOINTED boss Bobby Robson admits Newcastle United are continuing to find life difficult without lively striker Craig Bellamy.

But the Magpies chief insists Bellamy's replacement, front-man Carl Cort, can recapture the form he showed prior to sustaining the knee problems which kept him out for nine months.

The former Wimbledon man has been forced back into action quicker than Robson would have liked because of Bellamy's tendon injury.

And the St. James' Park chief is convinced Cort, who made his third consecutive start on Saturday, will soon produce the goods in front of goal.

"Carl did everything right in the first half and he could have scored," said Robson, who saw the towering front-man go close with an effort saved by Matteo Sereni after half-an-hour.

"But he hasn't been in that situation for ten months so it's not easy for the boy.

"He will only get better because we know from last year how good he can be when he is in the team.

"We have got to get him back to that. The only way we can get him back to that is by persevering with him until we get Bellamy back.

"I know we need Bellamy, but we can't get him, not yet anyway.

"The next step is Carl Cort and he's in the process of being rehabilitated at the high level we know he can play at."

And Robson is hopeful Bellamy will be fit to face Everton on Good Friday.

"Bellamy's two weeks away and I wouldn't put much hope on him playing against Arsenal on Saturday but maybe after that," he said. Newcastle could have grabbed all three points in injury time against Ipswich when top-scorer Alan Shearer placed his spot-kick wide of the post.

And former Tractor Boys boss Robson, who enjoyed his 100th Premiership match as Newcastle boss, sympathised with 20-goal Shearer, who had earlier headed in Newcastle's second equaliser of the match.

"Alan has had one of those strange games. He scored one great goal," said Robson, who witnessed his captain also have two strikes ruled out for fouls.

"I thought he was a bit unlucky when the referee judged he had pushed the player before Alan lobbed the keeper in the first half. "Then Alan was judged to have nudged the centre-half and I've seen those ones given, so at the end of the day Alan could have had four.

"If Alan knocks the penalty in it's a completely different story.

"The script is completely different because of just one second of football. You would have put your mortgage on Alan and he is very, very disappointed, but I told him not to be because that's the way it is sometimes."

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