Sam Allardyce is standing by Claudio Cacapa despite his 20-minute horror show against Portsmouth. Cacapa was culpable for two of Pompey’s three early goals, after being shrugged off in challenges with Benjani and UtUtaka all too easily. Big Sam responded by hauling him off with the Toon Army understandably on his back, once Utaka rolled in the third goal. Today however, Allardyce has backed his Brazilian centre-back.

“Claudio is one of the few you thought wouldn’t make that type of mistake, but he did. We all try to learn from those mistakes and eliminate them as much as we possibly can”, proclaimed Allardyce.

Indications are then that he will resist the temptation to hand a start to David Rozehnal next weekend for their Derby match with Sunderland, or indeed, move Steven Taylor to the centre to partner Faye. Either way, a clean sheet for Newcastle, as it has done all season, looks doubtful to say the least.