Magpies' squad is too thin – Kevin Nolan

Oct 19 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

“All we can do is try to show our character again. The lads are hurting really bad and I don’t think there is any doubt we will get a reaction against Scunthorpe.

“Hopefully that reaction will mean we get the right performance and the right result.”

Nolan, though, was not willing to let the players hide behind injuries as he insisted every single one of them had to shoulder some blame as United slipped to their second league defeat of the season at a euphoric City Ground.

He said: “It’s difficult to explain why things were so poor, but when it comes to naming names I think we could point the finger at every single player in our dressing room.

“The fact is we’re not going to come to grounds and get it easy. We’ve got to get used to that. I’m not happy at all. I don’t think anyone is.

“We’ve got a game on Tuesday at Scunthorpe and it will be the same again. We’ve got to put it right there. We expect a reaction, that’s for sure.

“If we don’t get the right reaction, it’s going to be ugly. It’s not going to be a nice dressing room to come back into because we set high standards for ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Chris Hughton has admitted Newcastle’s performance was well below par against Forest, although he still felt the Magpies should have got at least a point from the game after they dominated the second-half.

He said: “All you do is prepare the team as normal and hope you do it in the right way, which we’re always confident of.

“But as soon as that whistle goes it’s up to the 22 players on the football pitch and they were better than us, for whatever reason.

“We didn’t get close enough to them at times. They kept the ball better than we did and I think that our ball retention had to be better. It certainly was better second half. It was very much a game of two halves.

“The unfortunate thing for us is that they scored in the period they had – and we didn’t.”