Ian Cathro: Newcastle is my first failure - it needs to be fixed

Cathro joined the Magpies last summer as part of Steve McClaren's backroom team, arriving with a strong reputation as a coach.

However, he couldn't help prevent the club from spinning out of the Premier League and into the Championship.

And in an in-depth interview, the Scot has revealed how affected he has been by the relegation.

He said: “The overriding feeling is painful. The only thing that ran right through the season was failure, on everybody’s part.

“The only thing that invokes is disappointment and, primarily, pain. It forces you into a different type of reflection.

“We deserved to go down, no doubt about that. We consistently failed.

“I’d be completely false if I said it was a good experience. I can’t see that yet. I’d accept in a period of time that might change because I’ll have seen the value in it but not at the moment.”

The 29-year-old arrived on Tyneside after spells as assistant manager and coach at Rio Ave, in Portugal, and La Liga outfit Valencia.

After McClaren was sacked, incoming Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez kept Cathro on at the club and the Scot is determined to learn from the experience of failure.

He added: “There were a lot of situations I hadn’t lived through because I’d been in technical teams who had been successful.

“In everything that I’ve done it’s my first failure. I have to accept that and deal with it. It needs to be fixed.

“The football club means so much to people and it’s got incredible potential.

“When I think about the Newcastle I remember as a kid, they were challenging for honours.

“Kevin Keegan’s team was one that invokes an emotional response from you. They were loved and people lived their lives through them.

“To be part of a failure like that cuts deep.”