BELLAMY: NEWCASTLE WANT ME TO FAIL AT ANFIELD

Bellamy: 'Newcastle are hurting that I am at Liverpool'

Craig Bellamy has hit back at former club Newcastle, after the mid-week game at Anfield, in which assistant boss Terry McDermott labelled Bellamy 'a little upstart'.

Craig reckons that Newcastle have a huge chip on their shoulder after he not only offended the hero of the North, Alan Shearer, but also ended up leaving on a cheap deal.

Bellamy had this to say about the mid-week affair:

"The circus was in town on Wednesday. There was always going to be something from them (Newcastle), but it doesn't bother me. Not at all.

"I was half expecting something because I know they are hurting, my being at Liverpool is hurting them.

"This is the club I have always wanted to play for and maybe there are people who are not too happy about that.

"I'm sure there are people there (at Newcastle) who don't want me to succeed here, because it reminds them every time.

"It was a ridiculously cheap fee I went to Blackburn for, it's not nice for me to be remembered for that. What was it, about £3.75million? That hurts. I know that, but that is the game we play."

Getting back to on-field activity and Craig is coming under some pressure having failed to score in the last eight games. Rafa has publicly backed the player and Craig insists he will come good and misfortune has played a big hand:

"That's the way it is at the moment, the ball keeps going the other side of the post or hitting it. It happens, but I have had times like this in my career before.

"I am maybe too excited to score. You want to do so well and you are snatching at chances, and when you do that as a forward you find the chances slip away.

"In some ways it is different for me. It's the club I supported and there is an extra determination to do well.

"I'm putting extra pressure on myself, but then I always do that, it is how I play football. I demand high standards of myself and I don't worry about missing chances.

"But the one thing I don't like is when anxiety creeps in and it affects my game a bit. That's something I can't handle.

"Probably that is how it is at the moment. Okay, the people around me are scoring and I feel the rest of my game is going all right, making runs, helping create chances for others.

"But at a club like this you are judged on goals, and that is one thing you want to achieve. But at that's life, I have to keep going.

"The chances will come at a club like this because there are such good players around who will create them. I am still enjoying it all."