PARKER PROUD OF ENDEAVOUR AGAINST NEWCASTLE

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Head Coach taking positives from St James' Park performance

2025-12-06T19:31:32.294Z

PARKER PROUD OF ENDEAVOUR AGAINST NEWCASTLE

Head Coach taking positives from St James' Park performance

2025-12-06T19:31:32.294Z

Head Coach taking positives from St James' Park performance

Scott Parker said he felt pride for the endeavour his players showed in Saturday's narrow defeat at St James' Park against Newcastle United.

Playing the majority with ten men, Parker believes there were 'massive positives' to take from the performance.

“Well, I think it's firstly an incredible performance. I get normally I’ve stood here over the past few weeks a little bit frustrated, a little bit disappointed that we’ve not got the result. But there were large elements that I really liked, and I stand here at this present moment in time frustrated, angry, and with immense pride really.

“There was a lot of work this week, a lot of inside searching at times in the group, together.

“When you go down to ten men for as long as we did, we were diligent, a clean sheet in the second half. There’re massive, massive positives and we need to maintain that.”

A bright start for the visitors was undone when Bruno Guimarães scored directly from a corner in the first half, before Lucas Pires was dismissed and Anthony Gordon slotted home a penalty after a Lesley Ugochukwu handball.

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“The goal, a direct corner that goes in, that was a hammer blow for us, at that point there’s a bit of adversity. The team react well but at that moment we get a man sent off and I think in the situation we are currently in where we’ve not won in 5 games you could see a team that might fall away a little bit and I saw the polar opposite. And that is what pleases me and we need to maintain that that’s the most important thing.”

With substitute Marcus Edwards sending in a ball late that very nearly saw the Clarets equalise late on, Parker believes that his squad are just 'one moment away'.

“Those are the things that we need. I believe wholeheartedly we’re just one moment away. Crystal Palace at home, whilst that was a completely different performance. Whether it was that moment today that can just give us that.

“I understand how close it is, I can feel it, I can see it. And I get that we’ll get judged solely on the result, but we need to keep going the way we’re going here. The togetherness, what we improved on together today as a team, how we performed. The biggest question is we’ve just set a marker here, the team have set a performance and that’s the level we need to be and if we do that, we’ll have some more good performances.”