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Gosling: 'Still Plenty To Play For'
Written by Newcastle Utd
Dan Gosling has identified Saturday's trip to Stoke as the start of a strong finish to the campaign
By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Managing Editor
Dan Gosling fully believes Newcastle United can regain eighth place in the Barclays Premier League table, and has identified Saturday's trip to Stoke City as the start of a strong finish to the campaign.
After a run of three wins in four games, the Magpies have faltered in recent weeks, losing their last three matches without scoring a goal.
Last weekend, Gosling started his first top flight game since December 2011, and may be given another chance by this time out at the Britannia Stadium.
And the midfielder is determined to help United get back to winning ways and put an end to accusations that the season is already over, even though five games remain.
"People only say that because we cannot qualify for Europe and we cannot go down. No way do we think that the season's done. That's not right," Gosling told nufc.co.uk.
"We as a Club, and we as professional footballers, want to finish as high as we can. At the minute that is realistically chasing eighth place, so that is what we will try to do.
"Am I still confident we can do it? Yes, of course.
"There's only a couple of points between us and Southampton, we have quality players here and we all want to have a strong finish to the season."
That final stretch of the 2013/14 campaign starts on Saturday at Stoke City (3.07pm kick-off), and Gosling is well aware of the fixture's importance.
"It's massive," admitted the former Everton and Plymouth man.
"There's five games left and a lot of people are saying we haven't got anything to play for. But we want to get back into eighth place and maybe even push on from there.
"Hopefully we can go to Stoke, get a great result and kick on for the final four games of the season."
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