Newcastle ´gutted´ after City loss, says Perch

Newcastle defender James Perch believes the club can take heart from the display against Manchester City, despite losing 3-1 at St James’ Park.

Goals from Sergio Aguero and Javi Garcia put the champions 2-0 up at half-time, but a much-improved performance after the break saw the hosts pull a goal back through Demba Ba.

They dominated possession and chances before a Yaya Toure goal 12 minutes from time saw their hopes of a point fade.

Perch feels Newcastle showed vast improvement from recent performances, with the club on a run of six losses from their past seven games.

“I think most of us were gutted,” Perch told The Chronicle.

“Even though they had the better of the first half, I thought we came back in the second half and got the early goal that we said we needed.

“We kicked on and it looked as though we were going to score again, but they got the sucker punch of the third goal, which knocked the wind out of us and killed the game.

“We’ve got to be pleased though, especially with the second half. That’s when we played our best.

“I think we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit in the first half by not playing as well as we can do for a spell of 15-20 minutes.

“We were up against the champions, and more than matched them for long periods of the game. They were just a bit more ruthless than us.”