Colback 'Embarrassed' By Palace Defeat

By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Managing Editor

Jack Colback offered a brutally honest assessment of Newcastle United's failings at Crystal Palace, admitting a large part of their performance at Selhurst Park was "embarrassing".

The Magpies led through Papiss Cisse's header but then crumbled, as doubles from James McArthur and Yannick Bolasie, along with a Wilfried Zaha volley, condemned them to a 5-1 defeat.

The result saw United slip back into the Premier League relegation zone, and Colback believes he and his teammates have to toughen up when things get difficult.

"We had a game plan and in the first 15-20 minutes it worked perfectly. We got the goal and you could see they were rattled," the midfielder told nufc.co.uk.

"But we let them straight back in, then I made a mistake for the second goal and that put us on the back foot again. After that it was pretty embarrassing, really.

"Maybe we're not strong enough character-wise. It seems as if as soon as things go bad, it goes really bad.

"We had that last year and probably the year before as well. It's something that's hanging over the team that we need to get rid of.

"We had shown signs of improvement but the Leicester game and this one have really set us back quite a lot."

Colback returned to the United starting line-up after missing the last three games through a knee injury sustained in the Tyne-Wear derby.

It was originally expected to sideline the Killingworth-born midfielder for around six weeks but he was glad to be back, although disappointed it wasn't in more positive circumstances.

"It's two weeks ahead of schedule," continued Colback.

"I felt good and strong enough to play, and I'm glad to be able to play again. But it was a nightmare way to come back. We have to come back from this next weekend."