Andrew Cole is determined to make up for lost time on an emotional return to Newcastle.
The Fulham striker has had a tough season after being sent off — and subsequently banned for four games — for punching West Brom’s Neil Clement.
The bust-up was so serious Cole’s ban was only reduced from SIX matches following an appeal to the FA.
But the former Toon hero — who enjoyed two prolific seasons on Tyneside in the mid-1990s — made a winning return by scoring in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Spurs.
And he now goes to St James’ Park on Sunday full of confidence.
Cole, 33, who has bagged five goals in eight games for his new club, said: “We’ve got some tough games coming up, starting on Sunday.
“But there’s a determination here and we should be able to get a few more results and a few more points going forward.
“We’ve let ourselves, the manager and the fans down with some of our performances. We’ve been knocking off when we shouldn’t have been.
“I let myself down by getting sent off, so it was important for me to get back and try and get goals.
“I try to drive the team on with my performances and my goals — all I want is to get us up the league. Hopefully, the last two games will give us some momentum and we can start picking up points away from home.”
Cole has warned his team-mates they are not too good to be relegated.
He insists reputations and their excellent effort last term will count for nothing with the stakes so high in the battle to stay in the Premiership.
He said: “There’s no point in saying we’re too good — loads of teams have said that and gone down.”
Fulham suffered a disastrous spell of three successive Premiership defeats during Cole’s absence.
But he was impressed with Fulham’s battling win at Birmingham in the League Cup and even more so with the display against Spurs.
Cole said: “It was very good out there at times. Obviously having Luis Boa Morte up there and Steed Malbranque orchestrating things from the top of the diamond was fantastic.
“We all know what Steed’s capable of doing and it’s great for me to be able to try to get on the end of those moves or to get involved in the setting up.
“It’s important we get everyone back fit and there’s competition for places. We were obviously missing Claus Jensen on Saturday but Steed was outstanding. Now we’re ready for the next test.”
