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De Jong's Debut Despair
Written by Newcastle Utd
Luuk de Jong admits his Newcastle debut was one to forget, after the Magpies slipped to a home defeat against Sunderland
By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Managing Editor
Luuk de Jong admits his Newcastle United debut was one to forget, after the Magpies slipped to a 3-0 home defeat against local rivals Sunderland on Saturday.
The Dutch international striker, signed in midweek on loan from Borussia Monchengladbach, came off the bench at half-time at St. James' Park in the Barclays Premier League clash.
Despite having only previously played 85 minutes on football this season, de Jong looked bright and forced Black Cats' goalkeeper Vito Mannone into a couple of saves as United looked for a route back into the game.
And, already well educated in what the Tyne-Wear derby means to everyone in the North-East, the front man was gutted to come away with nothing.
"I'm happy to be here and to play but it is not the beginning I hoped for. I wanted to win this game," he told nufc.co.uk.
"I was told how big it is for the Club and the fans and now I've seen it for myself.
"I had a couple of chances and I expect myself to finish better there. I'm not satisfied with that.
"Sometimes I thought I did okay, made some good runs and got the ball but just couldn't get a good shot away when I came back inside. I will keep working on that and my goals will come."
Goals from Fabio Borini, Adam Johnson and Jack Colback earned the Black Cats all three points on a day when United rarely threatened.
And de Jong believes it was in stark contrast to Newcastle's eye-catching midweek performance at Norwich, which he viewed before putting pen-to-paper on Tyneside.
"We are really disappointed," he explained.
"We spoke before about what the game meant, how we had to start and what we had to do but we didn't play football today.
"Our strength is playing football. I watched the Norwich game in midweek and you could see how good we were, but today we just didn't get going. Sunderland played well at times though and got the goals.
"It's a terrible debut for me - a really bad moment and I'm so disappointed.
"We have a big week ahead, We need to work hard as a team and be prepared for Chelsea."
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