Smith couldn't bear pain of relegation again

Returning star Alan Smith is desperate to avoid adding another relegation to his CV.

The midfielder made his first start of the season against his former club Manchester United last night, but couldn't prevent Newcastle from going down to a 2-1 defeat.

The result leaves the Magpies fifth bottom of the Premier League, just a point above the drop zone.

And Smith, who was part of the Leeds United side that dropped out of the Premier League five years ago, said: "You never want a relegation on your CV – I've unfortunately experienced it.

"And for me you don't want to have two on there. It's not nice. It's horrible. And if there are people that need reminding of it, I'm not one of them.

"There's 10 games left and hopefully last night against Manchester United, we can use that as a springboard to go to Hull a week on Saturday and get a performance and result.

"We showed we have a great endeavour and belief. And now we need to continue that if we're to beat the drop."

Smith last started a Premier League game against Everton at Goodison Park on the final day of last season.

And his only first-team involvement this term was as a second-half substitute against the Toffees at St James's Park two weeks ago.

But reflecting on his 82-minute contribution last night, Smith said: "It's been nine months since I started a competitive game and there is no bigger game than Manchester United to do it in for me.

"We've come out of it with a lot of pride and a lot of respect from their players. It's just disappointing that we couldn't come out of it with a point.

"We all have to stand up and be counted now in the last 10 games."

With stars like Habib Beye, Michael Owen, Joey Barton and Danny Guthrie all still out Smith admits that the loss of such key personnel could not be at a more difficult time.

He added: "We're in a relegation battle, and we don't have everybody fit which is disappointing.

"When you look around at the players who were missing again last night it's a huge plus for Chris Hughton.

"If you do have fresh legs then you can mix and match like Man United do.

"Chris probably wouldn't have wanted to play me because of match fitness, and I was seeing stars after 60 minutes.

"He only had the option of bringing on Kazenga LuaLua, who isn't a central midfielder. We're down to the bare bones. But when that is the case everybody has to dig in and show what they're about."

Source: Shields Gazette