Saturday 21 February 2015 21:32, UK
Newcastle head coach John Carver refused to criticise his side’s effort, but bemoaned their poor start in the 5-0 defeat at Manchester City.
The visitors conceded a penalty within 30 seconds when Vurnon Anita tripped Edin Dzeko, and Sergio Aguero scored the spot kick before City made it 3-0 after just 21 minutes.
Newcastle have now lost 11 Premier League games against City in a row, and Carver was extremely disappointed with the way they slipped to defeat so quickly.
“Absolutely dreadful. All your plans in place and you concede a stupid goal within the first couple of minutes,” he said.
“No matter what you do through the week to prepare for games like this – and it’s hard enough coming here anyway – you shoot yourself in the foot in the first minute then it’s an uphill task.
“We were two down in 12 minutes. After the first goal we actually settled down a little bit. But we lost possession and it ended up in the back of the net.”
Newcastle now have two home games to come, first against Tim Sherwood’s Aston Villa before they take on Manchester United at St James’ Park.
While disappointed with Saturday’s defeat, Carver said he couldn’t criticise the work rate and believes they have the unity in the squad to bounce back.
“I don’t think it was from a lack of effort – we’ve come up against a very good side,” he added.
“I think there’s better sides than us that have come here and taken a hiding like we have done today. So I don’t think it was that anybody gave up. I can’t have a go at anybody for not trying – we just weren’t good enough.
“We were out-passed, we were out-thought, we were outplayed and got the right result
“You can sit down and feel sorry for yourself, blame other people, I could blame the players and the players could blame me.
“But we’re not like that. We’re a good group together, and I’m sure we’ll get together on Monday and have a review of the game today and try and put things right.
“What we can’t do is let it fester, we can’t let it affect us. Sometimes you get a hiding like we have done today. I think we’ve got enough characters to bounce back and do something about it.”
