Alan Shearer acknowledged
the huge progress made by his one-time protege Louis Saha after the Frenchman
helped deepen Newcastle's capital woes with a wonder strike on Saturday.
Saha, 23, hit a peach of a goal - a 25-yard left-foot curler that would
have made even David Beckham green with envy - to start United's decline
towards their 27th consecutive match in London without victory.
The Magpies' vocal 3,000-strong travelling army must surely be tiring
of the 600-mile round-trip down the A1, especially when the man of the
match is a young striker who flopped during a six-month loan at St James'
Park two-and-a-half years ago.
Saha came back to haunt Newcastle with a stunning 20th-minute goal after
a smart one-two with Sylvain Legwinski - who drove home the second 10
minutes later - and Shearer was struck by the ability of Saha, who had
not scored in the league for three months.
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Louis Saha scores a candidate for goal of the month |
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"Saha has definitely improved since he was at Newcastle - without doubt,"
said Shearer, who also missed a late penalty. "He's quick, confident
on the ball and can score goals. He did very well yesterday and looked a
very good player. "He was a lot younger and less experienced at Newcastle.
You could see he had talent and ability, but it might not have been the
right time for him at Newcastle because of the players we already had. "He
went back to France and has now gone to Fulham and done very well. The way
Fulham play suits him as they don't often kick it long and are a good passing
side.
"When we swopped shirts afterwards, I said he'd scored a great goal
and good luck to him."
After scoring twice in the opening-day defeat at Manchester United, Saha
has endured a barren spell and was understandably happy with his performance.
"I was delighted with the goal and it meant a lot to score against
them," he said. "It was very special to score and it was one of
my favourite goals. It might go just behind the ones I got against Manchester
United. "It was a pleasure playing alongside Shearer a few times and
his shirt is for my father, as he is a big fan of his. I had a good time
at Newcastle but I have to forget that as I'm playing for Fulham now."
"It was a very disappointed dressing room," Shearer added. "We
don't do anything different for away games in London than for any other
away games. I really don't know why we find it so difficult. "Our thoughts
were not to go to Fulham and put on a show because it's Bobby Robson's old
club, but to win because there were three points at stake to get us further
up the league. "We're very disappointed with the goals we gave away
- they were sloppy. We got back into it at 2-1, but we gave away another
sloppy goal. Their third goal was a killer goal."
Shearer was surprised by the award of a spot-kick after Alain Goma's
challenge on Laurent Robert, but felt Goma fouled him after Edwin van
der Sar saved his shot and the United captain attempted to tuck home the
rebound.
"The penalty was a great save but I'm obviously very disappointed,"
he said. "I last missed a penalty against Sunderland last year. Yesterday,
I didn't actually think it was a penalty in the first place, although
the second one (Goma's tackle) certainly was.
"Van der Sar is a good goalkeeper, he has a big presence and coped
well with our crossing into the box. There's no doubt he's quality."