Newcastle keeper Rob Elliott has hailed the decision to cancel Newcastle’s club Christmas Party, and admits his side deserve to be in a relegation scrap.
The Magpies dropped into the bottom three for the first team this season after their eighth top flight defeat in nine games at the weekend – a sensational goal from Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil proving to the difference between the two sides.
Rafael Benitez’s side had been as high as fourth in the table in mid-October, but their dismal run of form has seen them dragged into a relegation dog-fight – and keeper Elliott says it is no less than they deserve.
Elliot said: “We are there because we have lost the last eight out of nine, so you can’t say ‘Oh, we’ve been unlucky.’
“It’s tough. I don’t think result have always reflected how we have played. But you don’t lose eight games without playing badly. You have to take it on the chin, keep working hard.
“We have got a lot of young lads and it’s about trying to keep the positivity. It’s just trying to keep believing in what we are doing and what the manager is telling us to do and knowing that we can turn it around.”
As a result of their poor form, the club’s Christmas shindig has also been called up, and Elliott too believes that is the right thing to do given the circumstances.
He added: “It was a decision that we made because it’s not right to go out and celebrate. I think there are more important things to worry about.
“We have great togetherness, so I think it’s an appropriate time when the club is not where we want to be that we knuckle down and we think about football, concentrate solely on that and make sure that every focus is on the game.”
