Newcastle United head coach Steve McClaren and his assistant Paul Simpson have talked up the importance of Saturday’s crucial game against fellow strugglers AFC Bournemouth.
A win against Eddie Howe’s men would see Newcastle climb out of the bottom three by leapfrogging the 17th placed Cherries and McClaren knows that the Magpies must capitalise on a gilt-edged opportunity to pull away from the drop zone.
Speaking to The Chronicle ahead of Saturday’s lunchtime trip to Dean Court, McClaren said:
They are all important, but this game is very important. Again, good preparation, good work in the week and after (the Wear-Tyne derby defeat) last week, the reaction was very good.
Despite dominating possession and registering a combined total of 36 efforts on goal in their previous two games against Sunderland and Stoke, Newcastle incredibly failed to find the back of the net in either encounter and have just one solitary point to show for their blatant superiority.
With Newcastle living dangerously at the foot of the Premier League table, assistant coach Paul Simpson is aware that United must swiftly develop a ruthless streak to start converting their promising performances into vital points. In the build up to Saturday’s game Simpson has urged McClaren’s goal-shy Magpies to improve upon their miserable record of failing to score in six of their 11 league games this campaign.
Speaking to nufcTV, Simpson said:
It’s goals that we want and we were delighted with the way that we performed (against Stoke). We defended well as a team, we created goal-scoring opportunities, got into the final third on a number of occasions – it’s that finishing that’s missing. It’s that fine line between getting a point, getting no points and picking up three – which is what we all want to do.
Newcastle’s long-suffering fans face a mammoth 718-mile round trip from Tyneside to the South Coast for Saturday’s televised 12.45 kick off and Simpson hopes that United can reward the travelling Toon Army’s loyalty by registering their first away win since January 2014:
Bournemouth would be a lovely place to do it. It’s a day to look forward to and we’ve got to make sure that when we’re coming home from Bournemouth, and all our fans are making that nice short trip back up North, we’ve got to make sure they’ve all got something to smile about.
