Nolan confident of Newcastle’s survival

Newcastle United’s Premier League survival may be hanging by a thread but new signing Kevin Nolan has said that no-one at the club is panicking about going down yet.

Newcastle’s 3-1 home defeat by Arsenal on Saturday saw the Magpies drop into the relegation zone as fellow strugglers Stoke City and Portsmouth both won and Blackburn Rovers drew. Only north-east neighbours Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion are below them and with only eight matches to play and a difficult run-in to come, Newcastle are two points from safety.

However Nolan, signed from Bolton Wanderers in the winter transfer window, told the Newcastle’s website that “there aren’t any sirens going off yet. “I’d far rather be in the bottom three now than at the end of the season. I think we’ve got enough in the locker and enough in the changing room to get us out of this in the next eight games,” he said of a talented squad.

“It’s down to us now to start being ruthless – ruthless with each other and against teams. I am 100 per cent positive we will still be in the Premier League come the end of the season.”