Andros Townsend: No fear factor amongst Newcastle United squad
Andros Townsend claims Newcastle United's players aren't sitting scared in the dressing room ahead of big games, writes Ross Gregory.
The Magpies were battered by Chelsea on Saturday to leave them deep in relegation trouble at the bottom of the Premier League.
The 5-1 defeat saw them slip back into the drop zone below Norwich City on goal difference.
Newcastle looked like a rabbit in the headlights in the first 20 minutes at Stamford Bridge, shipping three goals with pitiful defending to effectively kill the game inside the first quarter.
New signing Townsend, however, insists they went into the game ‘full of confidence’ despite the awful start.
He said: “It is nothing in the dressing room, the lads are not coming here scared.
“We came here full of confidence, we felt we were good enough to get a point, but on the day we were nowhere near.”
The result continued Newcastle’s terrible form on the road this season. The Magpies have played 13 games away from home, losing 10.
It is a sequence which sees them on the brink of dropping into the Championship, despite an outlay of £80million on players this season.
Townsend cost £12million when he joined from Tottenham Hotspur last month, and despite only being with the club a few weeks, he believes there is enough quality in the squad to get out of trouble.
“We have got the players in the dressing room to get us out of this situation,” added Townsend, who got Newcastle’s consolation on Saturday with his first goal for the club.
“I have no doubt in my mind that eventually we will get it right, things will start clicking and the results will start coming.”