Damien Duff opens up on his relegation with Newcastle United and THAT Aston Villa own goal

The Irishman failed to live up to expectations at St James’s Park after arriving from a successful Chelsea side, managed by Jose Mourinho, for £5million in 2006.

Duff would go on to play under a number of different managers - including Glenn Roeder, Sam Allardyce, Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear and Alan Shearer - in his three years on Tyneside as the Magpies plummeted to relegation from the Premier League in May 2009.

While Duff scored the equaliser to earn United’s first point of their Championship season away to West Brom before days later joining Fulham, his Newcastle career was overshadowed by one moment which happened only months earlier.

The 41-year-old was credited with the unfortunate own goal which sealed United’s relegation at Aston Villa on the final day of the campaign.

Speaking to Open Goal, Duff said: “I’m a big believer of positive mindset but I was always in the negative up there, so it doesn’t shock me that I scored an own goal to send Newcastle down because that was where my head was at.

“I worked my absolute socks off but I was just so negative about everything in my own head that it doesn’t surprise me and I thought ‘this is just meant to be’.”

Duff added: “It was carnage. I ended up playing the last couple of months at left-back. It was no problem - I would have played anywhere but there was just so much chopping and changing in the squad.

“I wasn’t giving much going forward as a winger at the time, so it was probably a wise decision. I didn’t mind but there was just a poor mentality throughout the club for three years that I was there.

“It was horrific (to be relegated). Out of the three relegations, the Blackburn one probably hit me the worse but Newcastle went down because they deserved to.

“For me, it was a chance to press the reset button and come up again, but I’m not sure how much has changed at that club.”