Toon Defeat Opens The Door For Campbell

Last updated : 13 September 2010 By Footy Mad - Editor

Although Williamson was arguably the pick of the bunch at the back against Blackpool, Campbell is waiting in the wings and set for his Newcastle debut, and he is the one most likely to make way for the former England international.

Mike Williamson: “We know that we’re going to lose games this season, more than we did last year, and the boys look at this one as a massive opportunity lost.

“We knew there were going to be more defeats along the road and we’re going to play a lot worse than we did against Blackpool, but it’s all about keeping the confidence up.

“We’ve got a good group of lads here and that’s what’s going to happen. When we had adversity last season, we bounced back straight away and that’s what the manager has said in the dressing room.

“It’s not about the defeat, it’s how we react to it. It’s down to the players to kick on from this. We have to come out next weekend and show it hasn’t affected us.

“I don’t think there’s anger there, just disappointment. Players will be tough on themselves, but as a team we know that everybody worked hard and nobody threw the towel in.

“There is no doubt we wanted three points. There is huge disappointment amongst the lads. We’ve had an inquest in the dressing in what, where and how it went wrong.

“But no confidence has been knocked. If you compare the chances we’ve had compared to theirs, it just wasn’t our day. From the first few minutes when we hit the post, their keeper was man of the match. he had an absolute blinder.

“Things were just hitting him and going out of play. Overall, we know it’s a missed opportunity, but we’re not going to lose any sleep over it. On another day we would have won by three or four. We were going for the point right at the end and got done with a sucker punch.

“This is what makes football such a fantastic game. There’s no such thing as a given when you just turn up and win. If we play like that and get those sort of chances, we’re going to win far more than you lose.”