 JOE Kinnear has declared his innocence after he was charged with using abusive and insulting words towards a match official during the 2-2 draw with Stoke City as he insisted he will fight to avoid a lengthy touchline ban. Kinnear, who has already been charged with improper conduct by the Football Association this season for labelling referee Martin Atkinson a “Mickey Mouse” official following Newcastle United’s 2-1 defeat at Fulham, was sent from the dug-out by Mike Riley following a complaint from the linesman shortly after Stoke’s injury-time equaliser. But Kinnear is adamant he has done nothing wrong this time and insisted he has the witnesses to prove it as he suggested he has become a victim of his own reputation with match officials. “I’m going to defend myself against any charge because on this occasion I have done nothing wrong and I’m determined to clear my name,” said Kinnear, who will have a meeting with the Newcastle board today to discuss his transfer budget ahead of next month’s window. “I still haven’t been told exactly why I was sent from the dug-out, but I believe it was for supposedly saying something to the linesman. “I don’t know because I’ve not been told by the referee. I will fight this because I’m frustrated and disappointed it has happened. The thing that I find strange is I’ve no idea how the linesman has heard what I’ve supposedly said from where he was standing and with all the noise that was going on. “Chris (Hughton) was having his say and I did say something, I know what I said, but I’ll wait until I have to give my defence before I talk about that any more. “There was plenty of noise around, the fans behind the linesman were absolutely furious and they were saying plenty to him as well, the whole place went crazy.” Kinnear was clearly angered by the decision to penalise Sébastien Bassong for the faintest of shoves on Stoke striker Ricardo Fuller, particularly as the visitors scored from the resulting free-kick. But he also argued he had not blamed the linesman for the goal and admitted mistakes do happen in football. He said: “I’m not blaming the linesman or the referee. It’s not their fault Stoke scored, we defended the free-kick badly and that was why they scored. “It’s our own fault we conceded a goal in injury time because we knew they were dangerous from set-pieces and we switched off at the crucial moment. “The free-kick should never have been given, it wasn’t a foul, there was barely any contact at all and I couldn’t believe it was judged to be foul play. Mistakes happen though.” United have dropped four points in their last two home games, four points which, had they been secured, would have taken the Magpies up to eleventh place in the table, just three points off seventh. And Kinnear knows how costly that could turn out to be as he looks to lift the players again ahead of the long trip to Portsmouth next weekend. He said: “We’ve dropped four points in our last two home games and if you think back to the Manchester City game, we’ve dropped six really. Against City they were given a penalty which never was and we had a player sent off for it which was another major blow for us to deal with. “Against Fulham there was a foul in the build-up to their second goal which the referee ignored and those things are really difficult to take. If we had a couple more points the league table would look a lot better for us. “We have been getting a raw deal in recent weeks and we can only hope that turns for us in the second half of the season. When you think about all the injuries we’ve picked up as well, lady luck hasn’t really been kind to us has she? But we are soldiering on and things will turn in our favour as long as we keep plugging away.” | 
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