Krul Keeps It Clean Again

By Tom Easterby

After keeping his second clean sheet in three games, goalkeeper Tim Krul told nufc.co.uk the spirit in the Newcastle United camp has been key to their recent revival.

Winless in seven Barclays Premier League games at the start of the season, Alan Pardew's side have now recorded four consecutive wins in all competitions and saw off the challenge of Liverpool on Saturday thanks to substitute Ayoze Perez's second-half strike.

And Krul, who regained the gloves from Rob Elliot following Wednesday's Capital One Cup win at Manchester City, reckons his team's upturn in fortunes owes much to a strong work ethic and togetherness.

"To win four in a row is incredible. The spirit we showed again is what we've showed the last week, we've just kept grafting for each other," said the Holland international.

"Every single player on that pitch is really working hard for each other, so it's nice.

"We've stuck together. We've been unlucky at the start. We've had a lot of stick - some I've agreed with, some I really didn't agree with.

"I remember Crystal Palace here and last minute they equalised. At Aston Villa we had a couple of massive chances to win that game as well and it would've been a different story. But now, we've just turned it around and we look like a solid team with some real quality up front."

The in-form Gabriel Obertan was withdrawn with an injury in the first half, but the Magpies were able to call on replacements Rolando Aarons, a scorer in midweek and, later, Perez and Remy Cabella to maintain their attacking vigour.

And 26-year-old Krul believes that having such quality waiting in the wings makes United a much more enterprising side this season.

"We just have to stick with this plan - we're solid the way we are and we've got some great players, even coming off the bench as well," he said.

"It's massive (to have players like Ayoze coming off the bench). We still had Gouffran on the bench as well, so we've got so much quality there. It's nice to have a squad with quality in depth as well.

"It's a shame for Gaby obviously, as he's been one of our star players lately, so I hope it's not too bad.

"They (Liverpool) have got the quality, obviously, to just tuck in our half as well. It's not necessarily the saves you have to make, but also through balls or coming for crosses or anything - you just have to stay sharp and we're doing that at the moment.

"Headers, tackles, for each other, grafting it out, and we've shown that again."

The Hague-born stopper also reserved praise for matchwinner Perez, who snatched his second winner in as many league outings following his goal at Tottenham last weekend.

"He's the top striker in the league at the moment with that ratio!" joked Krul.

"He's a quality player. He's shown it from the moment he arrived. We knew he was going to be a top player. He's still young and he still has to learn a lot but he's got a great, great future."