Under-fire Steve McClaren does NOT expect to be sacked at Newcastle

Emmanuel Riviere, Seydou Doumbia and Moussa Sissoko troop dejectedly following Newcastle's 1-0 defeat at Stoke

McClaren’s side suffered a sixth successive away defeat in the Premier League last night.

A late goal from Xherdan Shaqiri gave Stoke City a 1-0 win in atrocious conditions at the Britannia Stadium.

The result leaves Newcastle second-bottom of the division ahead of Saturday’s home game against Bournemouth, a fixture McClaren’s side simply have to win.

United fans applauded the players off the pitch, but there were jeers for McClaren.

Supporters had chanted “you don’t know what you’re doing” at McClaren in the second half when he replaced the injured Yoan Gouffran with Emmanuel Riviere rather than Ayoze Perez.

And his job as head coach is on the line with 11 games left to play.

However, the 54-year-old expects to see the season out.

Asked if he would be leading the club at the end of the campaign, he said: “I don’t see why not.

“We’ve been in this position all season, and we’re there for a reason.

“We have to continue the process of getting out of that.

“There are 11 games to go, but, as you saw, the reaction of the players has been good.

“We’re going to need that again on Saturday.”

McClaren felt the result was “cruel” on his team.

“We didn’t deserve that,” he said. “Jack Butland has been a bit of a curse for us this season.

“He made four magnificent saves at St James’s, and then produced another one at the end there that denied us a point.

“That’s the difference at the present moment.

“But we’ve talked a lot about what we need to do in the last 18 days, and I think we started that process in terms of attitude, work-rate and becoming harder to beat.

“The dressing room was frustrated, angry and disappointed – everything you’d expect from a game I felt we shouldn’t have lost.

“But football is a cruel game and tonight proved it again.”