Boss Roy Keane once again bemoaned his side’s defending as the Blues lost 4-0 at home to Newcastle United. The Town manager felt his team conceded “unbelievably bad goals” as his team’s winless league run stretched to nine matches.

Keane said: "The game was dead and buried by half-time. We conceded some unbelievably bad goals and we just have to defend better.

"I don't know if Nolan has scored a hat-trick before but he won't get an easier chance to get one. He must have thought it was Christmas.”

The Blues boss says individual errors have been costing Town all season: "We started OK but the first goal was a bad goal to give away. The lad Nolan scored loads of goals from set pieces at Bolton, yet we let him have a free header.

"It was bad defending for the second goal as well and that knocked the confidence of the players and it was always going to be hard from that point, given the experience of the Newcastle players and their defensive record this season.

"If we are opened up with good play then fair enough, but we have been giving goals away from the start of the season and it's unacceptable."

Keane had no complaints about the boos which greeted the final whistle: "I'm not daft, a lot of supporters voiced their opinions at the end but that is fair enough. They pay their money and they are entitled to that. But we will keep going.

"We knew it was a big day for the fans and I thought they were outstanding today. It's very easy to support your team when you are winning every week but the vast majority of the fans stayed right behind the team to the end and hopefully they will see that we have young players out there that need their backing.

"We are short of confidence and we need them to keep behind the team and they did that.”

Keane says the various tributes to Sir Bobby Robson were not a distraction for his players: "It didn't affect the team, what affected them was conceding the second goal so quickly after the first.

"It should have been something to enjoy, there was a good energy in the stadium but we keep giving teams a helping hand.

"You have to cope with set pieces, it's basic stuff. There are no magic wands and confidence comes with results. The longer this run goes on then the harder it will get.

"We have our pride and it has been massively dented. It is hard to take, but we have the chance to start to put it right against Sheffield United on Tuesday.

"But if we give goals away like we did today, we will get beat on Tuesday. There is no doubt about that."

Newcastle caretaker-boss Chris Hughton felt his side put in a display which was a worthy tribute to Sir Bobby Robson: "This group of lads were all at the memorial for Sir Bobby on Monday and that was an emotional occasion.

"The players were delighted to attend and we all tried to put on a performance for Sir Bobby. It was a special result and a special performance.

"It's a wonderful feeling to go in at half-time with the cushion we had and it doesn't happen very often.

"It's a massive boost to go top. The most important thing is that we are fighting at the right end of the table.

"There are a lot of teams around us who are not dropping many points so to go top is testament to this group of lads."

Photo: Action Images

Boz581 added 07:18 - Sep 28 Balkestien, Trotter...........unbelievably bad..go and play for Norwich.
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steve01777 added 07:49 - Sep 28 well unfortunatly i predicted weeks back that our first win wont be until the barnsley game looks like i may be right but on that performance we might not even get a win against them hopeless on sat utter embarassment with it being on bbc how much time can we give the guy come on guys we will be too far behind soon to save us from league one!!!! delaney for the one of those goals was stood in the middle not marking anyone like he has done on many occasions and after the first 3 goals there was a dumbstruck silence we were crap period this is bad really bad and i cant see it being improved very soon come on the blues sort it out NOW not looking forward to tues night now but will still be going against another team that we never to seem to beat at there place the blades cant be any worse than saturday can it????

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Surco72 added 08:39 - Sep 28 As i have said on numerous occasions what areas of our team has RK mproved ? To all the McCAuley knockers surely you can see that when he does not play we concede a lot of goals, he may have made some individual errors this year but he is trying to cover the rest of the back four who are woefully bad .Get Wright back in the team someone who actually knows where he is supposed to stand at free kicks ,corners etc with McCauley and get a new centre back in this week . Garvan has to be given another chance as no one gets the ball from the defence and tries to link the team, our ball retention and passing is dreadful Colback and Trotter havent got the ability to do it how ever hard they train . To those who say Trotter had a good game ,as the defensive midfielder it was his job to stop their attacking midfielder NOLAN scored a hatrick!!!! Martin scored his first goal in a good performance at Donny and gets dropped ,good confidence booster again RK .Walters best position has always been right midfield and was doing well until RK signed another right midfielder and is now trying to fit them both in his team !! Upfront at home we have to start with two Counago and another at the moment and they have to be given some games, everyone keeps saying time to gel how can we when the team is changed every week ? To those who continue to blame Jim as it is his team need to get their heads out of the sand Rosienor, Delaney, Leadbitter,Colback,Edwards,Priskin all his signings Trotter,Bruce were being released ,Pim was a squad player , Wright and Walters only two left who have been our best two players this year . Stop blindly believing or just hoping things will get better the team is poor, now i will probably be called a Naar wich fan but if i am then so is Shearer ,Dixon , Bright and even Claridge as they all said the same thing !!!!!

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Facefacts added 09:32 - Sep 28 Sol Campbell would not improve the defence. Just more money down the drain. Needs a talker, organizer. Hang yer boots up, Sol.
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jimmyjames added 09:41 - Sep 28 embarrassing display v newcastle. its been a while since i got so many texts from mates asking what the hell is going on. a woeful, shameful and disgraceful performance. only peters looked up for it when he came on. come on town, you are better than that.
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fugs added 10:17 - Sep 28 I was responsible for the comment 'get Joe R back' - his record at ITFC was good, considering that he was being forced to sell players because of the financial mess the club was in at the time. He left because he was not able to get the money for the strikers (and other) players he needed to make a real push. The difficulties with RK's management are being exposed - questions around team management and motivation and resorting to buying his way out of trouble. It is significant that Robson brought in only a small number of players during his time - RK tends to go for the cheque book when there are problems rather than being able to work with/motivate what he has already and , unlike Sunderland when he was there, the money pit here is shallow.

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yorksblue added 10:17 - Sep 28 I was hoping to turn up for work today and find out there's been a sacking or public execution. So far, no such luck on either count.
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guentchevsgoal added 10:46 - Sep 28
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Lightningboy added 13:25 - Sep 28 Tuesdays team imho: R.Wright Rosenior/D.Wright/McAuley/Quinn Walters/Leadbitter/Garvan/Peters Counago/Stead ..this is assuming Bruce is injured,otherwise D.Wright for Rosenior. Surely Alan Quinn could play at left back?..seems a better option than what we've got at the moment.
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