Jack Colback "embarrassed" by Newcastle thrashing as pressure mounts on McClaren

29 November 2015 05:46

Jack Colback admitted Newcastle's performance in a 5-1 defeat at Crystal Palace had been "embarrassing".

Yannick Bolasie and James McArthur both struck twice as the Eagles hammered the hapless Tynesiders 5-1 at Selhurst Park, Newcastle's seventh defeat in 11 league clashes to heap the pressure on Newcastle manager Steve McClaren.

He readily accepted Newcastle's board could easily lose patience with him, while Colback did not hold back in his assessment of the game.

"We had a game plan and in the first 15-20 minutes it worked perfectly. We got the goal and you could see they were rattled," Colback told Newcastle's official club website.

"But we let them straight back in, then I made a mistake for the second goal and that put us on the back foot again. After that it was pretty embarrassing, really.

"Maybe we're not strong enough character-wise. It seems as if as soon as things go bad, it goes really bad.

"We had that last year and probably the year before as well. It's something that's hanging over the team that we need to get rid of.

"We had shown signs of improvement but the Leicester game and this one have really set us back quite a lot."

While Newcastle were hauled in for extra training on Sunday, Palace's players were most likely nursing a few sore heads after the players' Christmas party.

Former Newcastle boss Pardew happily sent his players off for some festive high-jinks after a "pivotal" victory he believes allows the Eagles to chase a top-eight Premier League finish.

"There's no extra satisfaction (in beating Newcastle)," said Pardew.

"It's difficult to talk about the opposition, I love the staff and players who are there, and the fans.

"Whatever I say about that club it gets contrived. All I would say is I hope their fortunes improve going forward.

"Our players were really on it, and we'd talked: it was a kind of pivotal game, whoever the opposition was, in our season.

"Were we going to become a mid-table team or were we going to put ourselves back in contention?

"And we've put ourselves back in among the Evertons and the Tottenhams."

Source: PA