Allardyce Post-Derby

Speaking to placate the numerous let down Newcastle fans, Sam Allardyce was a man clamouring after the positives from what we saw as a woeful display:

'We`re disappointed that we`ve played a team at the bottom of the league at home and we haven`t beaten them. We should have done. We accept that. We just have to take it on the chin. Sometimes you don`t get what you deserve, but we`ve kept our (four-match) undefeated run going. We`ve got a point and we have to move on.

We know that we should have won this game, but we have to go to Wigan (on Boxing Day) and make sure we`re ready. We have to put this behind us and continue on trying to get more points on the board and get further up the league table. Ultimately, we got something from the game. But we`re very disappointed in the result and the performance.

Mark Viduka showed us the way forward with his finishing, he had three chances and he scored twice. We had enough opportunities to have buried any game but we encouraged our opponents, gave them something to hang on to right to the end.

I thought our creativity was good. Their keeper (Stephen Bywater) made numerous saves and we missed numerous chances. We`ve not converted them and not won a game that we should have won and we`re disappointed. We had numerous chances and should have converted more than the two goals we`ve scored.

We still have two clear problems to resolve. I`m disappointed that we`ve had to come back from a goal down on two occasions and I`m disappointed that our basic defending allowed our opponents to have two shots on target and score two goals. It got a bit frantic, but that`s understandable because we all realised we shouldn`t have allowed ourselves to get into that position.

It`s basic defending. I`ve seen signs on occasion that we`re becoming more resilient and better at the back. But then the problem crops up again. We just have to continue to work on it and we have to tidy that area up and make sure we don`t give our opponents gifts that make life more difficult for us. It`s something that we can do better at.'