Newcastle United football chief Joe Kinnear says critics amongst the Toon Army are being driven by the media.

While his time in the dugout was ended by a heart attack, results on the field contributed to the club's relegation from the Premier League.

United's fans have reacted accordingly but Kinnear, who struggled with some Newcastle players' names as well as Derek Llambias' on talkSPORT, said: "I'm a bit surprised.

"There's a certain section, exactly the same when I got there. I got over 10,000 letters when I had my heart attack, I felt very proud of that and thought I did an excellent job.

"A lot of Geordies are influenced by the media set, because I stood up to 100 journalists that night. It was the same night we beat Tottenham 2-1, the journalists always had it in, many of the Geordie fans were sucked in."

Kinnear went on to defend his record as a manager, adding: "I look at my record and they keep saying to me 'what did I do?'. Where have these people been, on another planet? I've been manager of the year three times, travelled the world as a manager.

"This job came up, a responsible job. Already they're jumping on the bandwagon, 'watch out Pards' (United manager Alan Pardew) but that's the snidey press around that area that have a grudge. I expect it, it's water off a duck's a***."