Ciaran Clark has become the latest Newcastle player to make a key claim on the dressing room mentality at Newcastle after the Magpies’ deleterious defeat against relegation-threatened rivals Brighton.
What’s the story?
The Ireland international claimed the Mags ‘were not up for it’ in a damming assessment of his team’s mentality.
The result has left Newcastle within three points away from 18th-placed Fulham with the threat of relegation swiftly materialising into a real prospect.
He told the Press Association:
“Three games before, we had three draws and we could have won two of those games. We’ve been pretty confident and we have been for the last couple of weeks.
“On Saturday night, we weren’t up for it as a group of players. For some reason, it didn’t work for us. That was the most disappointing thing, the way we were playing the weeks beforehand, we didn’t take into the game, such a big game as well.”
Clark also spoke of his hope that the international break will enable Newcastle to welcome back a number of key players that could prove pivotal in the Magpies’ bid for survival.
“The international break has probably come at a good time for us now. We’ve time to get some injured players back. Hopefully, we can see out remaining games with a fully-fit squad, probably bar Isaac Hayden, who picked up a nasty injury,” he said.
The Verdict
Newcastle’s current conundrum is a great concern.
They have won only two of their last 20 games in all competitions and are essentially reliant on results elsewhere going their way on top of recovering some winning form.
The mentality after the break has to be one of a renewed and fervent energy that uses the Brighton disaster as a catalyst for change.