Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd has insisted he had little option but to sack Graeme Souness after watching the side slip down the Premiership table.

Shepherd finally took the decision on Thursday morning with the Magpies lying 15th in the league table despite the investment of £50 million during the Scot's reign.

"When Graeme Souness was appointed team manager 17 months ago, we had high hopes that he and his managerial team would bring renewed success to St James's Park," he said in his programme notes for today's Barclays Premiership clash with Portsmouth.

"Unfortunately, and despite a promising start, this ultimately did not happen.

"The exit from the UEFA Cup and failure to qualify again for Europe via domestic competition put extra emphasis on the need to do so this season, but from a challenging position before Christmas, we now find ourselves 11 points off a European qualification place with just 15 games to play.

"Injuries have certainly hindered the team in the past six months, but injuries are only a part of the football scene and other things had to be taken into account in the decision that was reached on Thursday morning.

"I would like to place on record this club's appreciation of the work that Graeme did in his time as manager here, but he has been in the game a long time and he knows as well as anybody that things can change rapidly in football."

Glenn Roeder has taken over the day-to-day running of the club with talismanic striker Alan Shearer as his assistant.