Newton: Players must work harder

Last updated : 09 January 2011 By Wba-mad Editor

Eddie Newton says Albion’s players must work harder to pull themselves out of their shocking run of form.

The Baggies have now not won a game in any competition since the start of December following the 1-0 FA Cup third round loss at Reading.

After a disappointed December, Christmas and New Year period which has seen the Baggies being dragged in to a relegation fight and now dumped out of the Carling Cup and FA Cup Albion’s No.2 insists Roberto Di Matteo’s player’s must ‘dig in’ to find a winning formula again.

"It was not a great performance but I don't think it was a bad performance," Newton said after the defeat.

"We created our chances but switched off for their goal and paid the price.

"If Ish had been given a penalty, which I thought was a penalty, and if his goal had stood, which I didn't think was a foul, it could have been a totally different game.

"I still think we dominated even when we were down to ten men.

"We're all disappointed.

"But no-one is throwing tea-cups around or smashing up walls because that doesn't solve anything.

"You may feel a little bit better when you get your anger out - but it doesn't solve anything.

"How you solve the situation is by working and communicating with your players.

"It's not going well at the moment so we're going to have to dig in."

The former Chelsea midfielder now believes the players focus on doing the basics right if they are to return to winning ways.

"That's what we need to do - it's as simple as that," he added.

"We're going through a period at the moment where we haven't had much training time.

"You are just ticking the players over, warming them down and hoping they'll recover within a short space of time because of so many games coming up.

"Now, we'll have a good week between this game and Blackpool.

"The boys will go home to their families, rest, recharge their batteries and be away from football for a little bit.

"Then they'll come back and we'll sit down, have a big talk about our situation and how we're going to go forward.

"We'll then work on it on the training ground.

"But there is no magic answer.

"We just have to work our way out of this."