We didn't test the 'keeper enough, admits Beardsley

The Magpies played with an extra man for a full hour after the visitors’ Arthur Masuaku was dismissed following an altercation with Luke Charman 30 minutes in.

However, they failed to find a way past a spirited Hammers side, who had started the clash the brighter.

It was Charman who came the closest to breaking the deadlock, hitting the crossbar midway through the second half before firing wide from a one-on-one two minutes later.

Beardsley was pleased with the forward’s showing on the whole, though, and acknowledged that a point apiece was perhaps the fairest outcome.

“On another day, Luke could possibly have scored twice,” he told nufc.co.uk. “The first chance, he probably doesn’t need to hit the ball so hard, in my opinion – as I’ve explained to him. The second one, maybe learning from the first, he’s tried to side-foot it, but it wasn’t anywhere near – it was two or three yards wide. Overall, his performance was good, but ultimately it’s about winning and scoring goals.

“To be fair, West Ham had chances – probably better chances, in better situations, and they didn’t take advantage of them. When they had 11 men on the pitch, they were much the better team, and even when they had ten, they didn’t look like they had ten. They played some good football, and they’ll probably be more disappointed than we are.

“Overall, it keeps us ahead of them (in the table), and that’s a positive – as is the clean sheet. But, I wouldn’t have thought any ‘keeper has had a major save to make. The biggest disappointment for me was that when we did have shots on target, most of them were outside the box. I like to score from six to eight yards but we never really looked like doing that.”

Newcastle remain fourth in the Premier League 2 Division Two, level on points with third-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers with just two games left to play.

Victories in both will make sure of an end-of-season play-off place, though Beardsley believes that one – against either Fulham or Middlesbrough – could prove sufficient.

“We’re down to the last two games, and if we can get one win out of the two I would guess that is enough,” he said.

“We’d like to be involved. On the back of the hard work and effort the players have put in, I think they deserve it.”