It is a matter of great concern to us and there will be a

It is a matter of great concern to us, and there will be a full inquiry into events.”. Paul Gascoigne insists he will be back in blue before the end of the season – after issuing yet another public apology to Rangers. The England international has said sorry to Walter Smith, the Rangers manager, and supporters following his recent, much-publicised antics. The 29-year-old also insists he is desperate to recover from an ankle injury in time to join in another party if Rangers win their ninth championship in a row. “I have 15 months left on my contract and it is the intention on both sides that I will see out that contract in full and hopefully Rangers will win 10 out of 10,” Gascoigne said.
“So that there is no misunderstanding, I was given a fortnight off by the club and I was grateful to them at the time and I’m grateful to them now. If I have let them or the fans down in any way by the publicity they and I have received, then I apologise.”I can assure everybody that I am working hard, that I will continue to work hard to get myself fit and be back in a blue shirt in time to be part of the team that carries off its ninth successive title.”Gascoigne watched from the stand on Saturday as Rangers lost at home to Kilmarnock.

Paul Wright’s late penalty clinched a 2-1 victory for Kilmarnock to boost their spirits in their fight to avoid relegation from Scotland’s top flight.However, it left Smith with further worries as his below-strength side missed an opportunity to put the championship further out of reach of Celtic.. A moment of Colombian brilliance was enough to ensure that Newcastle avoided defeat at Selhurst Park yesterday and also provide a vivid contrast to much of the action that surrounded it. Faustino Asprilla’s venomously flighted free-kick was a rare triumph of pure skill on a day when most of the virtues on display were of the muscular variety. A bumpy pitch was only a partial excuse for a tired match that neither side deserved to win.

Two months ago both sides entertained championship aspirations. These have long since faded – though Kenny Dalglish, the Newcastle manager, still claimed to have an interest in the title afterwards – but neither will be happy to have dropped two more points in the chase for Uefa Cup places.
For Wimbledon, whose challenge for the title was the story of the first half of the season, the slump in league form has become a particular concern.Side-tracked by their Cup endeavours, their last Premiership home win was back in mid-December, and they now boast just one victory in their last 11 league games.Newcastle, too, have had their disappointments of late and defeat in Europe last week means they will go through another season without winning a trophy.After the retreat from Monaco came the financial reckoning. On Friday Newcastle priced its forthcoming share issue so as to value the club at pounds 193m, an estimate which the City appears ready to endorse. Newcastle may have gone out of the Uefa Cup, but clearly they did not break the bank in Monte Carlo.Unfortunately for them pounds 21m worth of their investments remained unavailable for selection, with Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand still injured.

Dalglish did make changes, though, not for the first time responding to a defeat by dropping Peter Beardsley. To the surprise of some David Ginola retained his place, despite cementing his disaffection with Tyneside by handing in a written transfer request on Friday.Ginola’s performance was a cameo of his recent history in a Newcastle shirt: full of back heels, feints and Gallic shrugs, not to mention a series of heated exchanges with Asprilla, presumably as to who was supposed to play dilettante.Ginola did bring a terrible game to life, however, when a nicely flighted chip in the 25th minute forced Neil Sullivan to touch the ball over, though bizarrely Mr Lodge awarded a goal kick.Wimbledon have their own foreigner, one with a slightly more developed sense of import duties, and three minutes later Oyvind Leonhardsen gave them the lead. Newcastle laboured to clear Alan Kimble’s free-kick, and Rob Lee was dispossessed on the left-hand edge of the penalty area by Mick Harford. The ball fell to the Norwegian, who drove his shot across Shaka Hislop.The start of the second half saw a marked improvement – it could hardly have got worse – and after eight minutes Newcastle were level.