Newcastle manager Sir Bobby Robson remained philosophical after his side crashed to defeat in their opening Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev.

Kiev comfortably beat their English opponents thanks to goals from Maksim Shatskikh and Aliaksandr Khatskevich.

"It's a learning experience," Robson said after the Group E game.

"We've got five games to play and we were never going to win all six of them," said Robson.

"There's hope for us and I'm not afraid of it. As so often happens they got the second goal on the breakaway and managed to see the game out.

"But we never gave it up. We put Nolberto Solano and Laurent Robert on, we got some corners and put the keeper under a bit of pressure."

Robson also admitted that Kiev had been more tactically aware than his side.

"Where Dynamo were very clever was on the counter-attack," said the Newcastle manager.

"They defended very well and counter-attacked very quickly and caught us.

"That is what you see very many times in the Champions League, that a team which is defending well can counter-attack quickly and can make and take a chance."

Kiev coach Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko concurred with Robson's tactical assessment.

"Maybe this team is not yet used to the Champions League," he said of newcastle.

The other two teams in Newcastle's group - Feyenoord and Juventus - drew 1-1.

Newcastle's next game in the competition is against Feyenoord at St James' Park on Tuesday.