Roeder quits Newcastle job

News:Glenn Roeder has resigned as Newcastle manager after reaching the point of no return. It is understood that the 51-year-old parted company with the club yesterday after 15 months in charge at St James' Park including his spell as caretaker.

He made his decision in the wake of Saturday's dismal 2-0 home defeat by Blackburn which ended his side's faint hopes of claiming the Intertoto Cup route into Europe for the second successive season.

The club had yet to confirm Roeder's departure last night, although they were expected to do so. Rumours that he had been summoned to an emergency board meeting had been circulating throughout the day, with some suggesting he had been sacked.

Roeder was in defiant mood after Saturday's game, which extended his side's run without a Premiership goal at St James' to five games - their worst return since 1951 - and a staggering seven hours and 51 minutes.

He said: "I am very much the same person who was here last year who had a fantastic finish to the season.

"I have not changed as a person. Of course I understand, 100 per cent understand where the fans are coming from. They want a winning Newcastle team and I also want a winning Newcastle team. At the moment, we have not been winning and I understand their frustration.

"To win matches, you need to score goals and we have not done that for four, five, six weeks now, and that has cost us greatly. I do understand their feelings."

His change of heart sparks yet another search for the man to bring success back to Tyneside for the first time since they lifted the Fairs Cup in 1969, with their last domestic success coming in the FA Cup 14 years earlier.

Roeder's departure comes at the end of a week which has seen frenzied speculation about his position and the availability of Sam Allardyce.

However, chairman Freddy Shepherd had earlier insisted he had never spoken to Allardyce, who turned the job down before Graeme Souness was appointed in 2004, about the matter.

Shepherd, who has also dismissed suggestions that former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson could be heading for Tyneside, will now start the process of looking for the sixth manager of his reign.