Given takes the blame

Last updated : 01 December 2003 By Martyn Elliott

The Irishman shouldn’t be too harsh on himself though, after all £14million-worth of centre-halves struggled to deal with routine long balls all afternoon, and if the rest of our players had played as well as Given this season we wouldn’t be 15 points behind the Premiership leaders.

"There are no excuses really - I should probably have stayed put and let Woody deal with the situation,” Given told the Evening Chronicle.

"The wind did hold the ball up a bit, but I have got to hold my hands up and take the blame for the goal.


"It's a shame because we worked so hard during the game and I apologised to the rest of the lads afterwards - but we're all in it together as a team and nobody goes out on to the pitch looking to make mistakes.

"You know as a goalkeeper that if you make an error then nine times out of ten it will probably cost a goal, but credit to the lads for coming back to get a point from the game."