Harper - I couldn`t get near it

Speaking after clasping at fresh air from another Matty Taylor howitzer blast, Harps has said he couldn`t have saved that effort at all. Here at Vital Newcastle we think the leaping leprechaun of Lifford would have managed to keep it out though. Harps said:

"Matthew Taylor did what he has been doing all season - and that is scoring spectacular goals from well outside the area. I have watched all the videos and I knew all about the danger he posed, and I was fully aware of what to expect. But I got nowhere near it.

We were very disappointing in the first half when, to tell the truth, we could not get over the half-way line. We were quite fortunate not to be more than one goal down. But the gaffer had a right go at the interval, and rightly so, and he changed the formation, bringing Andy Carroll on. And all credit to young Andy - he was exceptional. He has been on fire in the reserves and he brought that with him.

My feeling was that if we had got the second goal of the game then we probably could have gone on to win it, but Matthew Taylor changed all that. The annoying thing is that, apart from that goal, I had very little to do in the second half. We dominated the whole of the second half, but in the end it just wasn't enough.'

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.