McClaren defiant despite crowd anger

Steve McClaren said he still hopes to turn Newcastle’s season around after AFC Bournemouth inflicted a 3-1 defeat on his beleaguered side at St James’ Park.

The Newcastle manager was subjected to boos and chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” from the home crowd as the Magpies limped to their 16th league defeat of the season and McClaren conceded their performance was that of a relegation bound team.

McClaren took no issue with the supporters’ complaints, saying: “That’s understandable and part of the game.

“I’ve had it before, it’s not pleasant and I’m as frustrated and angry as the crowd are with the display.

“What we can’t say is “that’s it”. We have to fight.”

Bournemouth took the lead courtesy of an own goal by Newcastle defender Steven Taylor, and Josh King doubled their advantage in the 70th minute.

Ayoze Perez pulled one back for Newcastle but Charlie Daniels made it 3-1 late on, prompting a resounding chorus of boos around the stadium.

Asked if he was the man to save Newcastle – who are still only a point adrift of safety – from relegation, McClaren said: “I hope so because I fully believe in what myself and the staff are doing but we have to do it better.”

He told the BBC: “I’m very disappointed. That was definitely a poor performance and ‘going down’ material.

“We have got to find the fighters in the team and the performance did not epitomise that. We cannot play like that and hope to stay up.

“But we are fortunate that we’ve got 10 games and that’s enough. It’s a four-team league now and we play everyone around us.

“There was a certain edginess and you could see that in our play. We lost our shape. Normally we are a good attacking team, but we were poor on the ball. You can only say that the pressure got to them.

“I can’t see any positives but we have to stick together as a staff and as a team, and fight.”