GARY Speed has rallied to the defence of Jussi Jaaskelainen, insisting: "He owes us nothing."

The Finland keeper took the rap for two of the goals that cost Wanderers their first domestic defeat since the turn of the year, when they went down 3-1 at Newcastle on Saturday.

Although Sam Allardyce admitted he was surprised to see the normally unflappable and reliable Jaaskelainen let his standards slip, he held him at fault when Nobby Solano put Newcastle ahead with a 34th minute free-kick and again when Alan Shearer headed the Magpies' second 10 minutes.

But Speed insisted the blame for the Tyneside defeat should be shared collectively and not shouldered by a player who has been Wanderers' saviour on countless occasions.

"Jussi hasn't let anyone down," said the veteran midfielder.

"He'll be disappointed, particularly with the second goal, because he's a perfectionist. But you can count on one hand the mistakes he's made this season.

"He's kept us in games in the last two or three weeks and been absolutely fantastic.

"Everyone makes mistakes, but when he makes mistakes it costs us. That's the nature of being a goalkeeper."

Speed, who received a rapturous reception at the ground where he spent six-and-a-half years before joining Wanderers two summers ago, is confident the Whites have the mental strength to respond to the disappointment with a victory over West Ham at the Reebok on Saturday.

"When we've lost games in the past this season, we've always managed to bounce back," he said. "We're mentally strong in that respect.

"We just have to get Saturday's game out of our heads."

Drawing on his experience of playing in front of the passionate Toon fans, Speed said the Solano goal had been key to the outcome.

"It was great to play in front of those fans again," he said, "but I know how important the first goal can be there. More often than not, the team that gets the first goal goes on to win and, unfortunately, Newcastle got it."

Kevin Davies, who drew scant consolation from having ended an 11-week wait to score his third goal of the season, admitted Wanderers were second best to a Newcastle side that has now taken 13 points from a possible 15 under caretaker manager, Glenn Roeder, to revive their own ambitions of claiming a UEFA Cup spot.

"The goal's the only positive I can take out of the game," he said. "We felt it was a place we could get a result, but we weren't good enough, right the way through the team and got beat fair and square.

"They outplayed us and we got outfought, which is unlike us. It's a big blow, but we're not going to make excuses. The goal gave us a lift, but we left ourselves with too much to do.

"We've been on a god run and this is a setback, but we've recovered from setbacks before and put things right and we'll be trying to do that on Saturday.

"I think this was just one of those days, like we had at Chelsea (Wanderers responded to a 5-1 hammering at Stamford Bridge in September with a seven-match unbeaten run).

"Hopefully we can do the same again."