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With the club's Premiership status secured, the Teessiders' attentions are firmly on the cup competitions and so it was perhaps not surprising that they succumbed to the Magpies.

Though Boro picked up the gauntlet in the second half when they reduced the arrears through George Boateng, the Dutchman's own goal and a strike by Shola Ameobi in the first half rather sealed their fate.

McClaren made four changes to the side which beat Basle in midweek and it showed, but, with an FA Cup semi-final on Wednesday night against Charlton, Premiership games this Saturday and a week today and the first leg of the Uefa Cup semi-final against Steaua Bucharest to come, he could be forgiven for arguing the loss of local bragging rights was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

"We have got bigger priorities, we know that, everybody knows that," he said.

"We have got a big game on Wednesday and there is a big prize at stake - a semi-final.

"That it what we have focused on and targeted over the last couple of months.

"I don't like to make excuses about why we got beat.

"I could very easily say we have had two penalty appeals turned down and that decisions have gone against us.

"I'm very disappointed that we lost, but there are reasons for it and I think everybody who came to watch the game can understand the reasons why.

"Somebody told me that that was our 53rd game of the season and we have still got a minimum of nine to play.

"I hope it's more because we want success in the cups."

McClaren says he was worried about fixture congestion and how his players would fair physically over the coming weeks.

"You need to go into big games with your best players and we didn't have that today," he said. "If we get a fixture congestion, freshness and energy are going to be a problem.

"We have already lost (Gaizka) Mendieta and (Emanuel) Pogatetz for the season, (Franck) Queudrue has had seven or eight stitches in a head wound, on top of the five he had the other night and Andrew Davies has come off as well.

"We haven't got a squad big enough (to cope)."

Despite the defeat, and more to the point the manner in which Boro were outplayed in the first half, McClaren said he would not be castigating the team.

"I would not criticise the players today at all.

"Even though we lost we showed tremendous spirit and character to have a go in that second half, and nearly pull it off," he said.

"As long as we have got that that's what I take heart from.

"We need to take that into Wednesday and the rest of the season. It's important."

Queudrue was rated as "touch and go" for the Charlton game by McClaren, while Davies' odds of recovery after sustaining an arm injury appear to be rather better.

Newcastle caretaker manager Glenn Roeder, meanwhile, adopted a cautious tone when questioned about the Magpies own aspirations in Europe.

Under his stewardship the club have reached the lofty heights of tenth in the Premiership, and, though it's an outside chance, there is still hope that a trip or two across the continent can be secured by the season's end.

"We are taking it one game at a time but we are now revved up and looking forward to Wigan," he said.

"We will let the league table look after itself, but we have kept our season alive."

Roeder was full of praise for goalscorer Shola Ameobi, who missed a couple of gilt-edged chances before playing a part in the opener and then scoring the all-important second.

"All strikers miss chances but you must keep going back in," Roeder said.

"I played with one of the great strikers in Clive Allen in my early days and he never worried about missing a goal, he just jogged away.

"I have started Shola in every game and he knows that he will be judged at the end of the season on how many goals he scores."

Roeder believed Newcastle should have had a chance to add to their tally when Ameobi appeared to be fouled in the box by Chris Riggott.

However, he suggested that the recent controversy over gamesmanship might have played its part in a spot-kick not being awarded.

"It was a nailed on penalty, but the referees don't know whether to stick or twist because there is so much diving," he said.

While McClaren was playing down the importance of the game on the local front, Roeder said it did mean something to him.

"You only get three points out of it, but it's a tiny bit more special because it's a local derby and there is a controlled rivalry.

"My happiness comes from sending those fans home happy," he said.

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