Terry Mac Sounds Like 'Dad's Army' ... "Don't Panic!"

Even the arrival of £17million striker Michael Owen could not lift the gloom last weekend as the Magpies laboured to a 1-1 draw with Fulham to remain 19th in the Premiership table on just two points, and we could drop to bottom if the unthinkable happens and the Mackems end that 20-Premiership-game-defeat record.

However, Terry McDermott tries once again to convinced us (and probably himself) that the manager's transfer dealings will click into gear sooner rather than later.

"The squad we have got at this football club now, Graeme said it is the best squad he has ever assembled," he said. "In '94, '95, '96, we had a superb team with quality all over the pitch, but I think we have surpassed that now with the quality at this football club.

"But we are in a results business and we have got to win games. It is no good having 11 superstars if you do not win games. You need 11 players who want to be the best, and the players we have got here now - Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Albert Luque - fall into that category.

"The biggest thing now for us this season is to keep our main players fit. If we can keep them fit and playing 10, 12, 15 games on the trot rather than two or three here and there, that will make a big difference to us.

"We have to be striving to get into that top-four because we are certainly capable of that, and to win a trophy, and with the players we have brought in, there is no reason why we cannot do that."