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Jonas Lauds United's Last Action Hero
Written by Newcastle Utd
Papiss Cisse once again saved the best with another late goal, much to the delight of team-mate Jonas Gutierrez who reckons it's just what he deserved
By Dan King - Newcastle United Club Reporter
Papiss Cisse has become Newcastle United's last action hero in recent weeks and Jonas Gutierrez is delighted to see the striker back to his best form.
The Senegalese star had a slow start to the season but his 93rd minute strike against Fulham was the fifth goal in his last eight appearances - and one of the most important.
He also scored in stoppage-time against Stoke last month, then netted with the last kick of the game against Anzhi Makhachkala and his latest goal was his 12th of the campaign - one less than he managed last term.
Cisse calmly prodded the ball past Mark Schwarzer to give the Magpies a massive boost in their battle against the drop and Gutierrez told nufc.co.uk: "It's good for the team and it's good for him to score.
"We have to keep creating chances for the strikers because we want Yoan (Gouffran) or Moussa (Sissoko) or Shola (Ameobi) to score as well because it's really important for the team and for their confidence to score.
"We don't want to depend on one player but Papiss is doing very, very well. He works hard and then you can score, but the most important thing is that he's working very hard for the team."
United are now five points clear of the relegation zone and Gutierrez - one of Newcastle's star performers against Fulham - believes Cisse's late goal was a fair reward for the Magpies' second-half pressure.
"It was a hard game," he said. "They have a really good team and maybe in the first half we couldn't play in the way that we wanted but in the second half we did much better and we're so happy, because we needed three points.
"When they play away from home, they are a compact team so that makes it hard to find the pass or to create chances. In the first half we didn't find that opportunity. They defended very well and they're quick on the break.
"But in the second half, when they got tired and we got more control on the ball and got more people forward, they found it difficult.
"The performance in the second half was much better and we created so many chances but we couldn't score because of the post and the keeper - until Papiss scored again."
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