Steve McClaren: I do NOT fear the sack at Newcastle

McClaren’s relegation-threatened side are 18th in the Premier League table and two points adrift of safety.

And the club’s head coach, appointed last summer, is under intense pressure ahead of this afternoon’s home game against West Bromwich Albion.

Newcastle’s squad has had almost £80million spent on it since the end of last season.

But there hasn’t been an improvement in the team’s performances.

Asked if he feared for his job, McClaren said: “No, no.”

United were beaten 3-0 by Everton at Goodison Park in midweek, and the shambolic nature of the defeat angered fans who had been buoyed by the club’s £28.5million January spend.

Asked if the West Brom match was significant for him in terms of his position, McClaren added: “It’s a big game, a big game for everybody, as always ... from the first game in terms of what you’re saying my position.”

Winger Andros Townsend made his debut against Everton, while loan striker Seydou Doumbia was an unused substitute.

McClaren, having reflected on his team’s performance, wants his players to show more “courage” on the ball.

“As we said we did say two weeks ago that week that we hadn’t finished it at West Ham,” said McClaren.

“The performance against Watford was good. This is football. I was thinking ‘we’ve got a team here, we’ve got a team on our hands’.

“It always kicks you in the shins. The biggest thing on reflection on the game is how we never passed the ball, we never kept the ball.

“You can’t do that away from home and when you talk about ‘we’re fighting’, there’s a different kind of character here.

“It’s courage, the courage to want to take the ball. That was the disappointing thing for me. On the ball, we’ve got talented players, we should be better than we were on Wednesday.”