Furious Allardyce demands more from Newcastle stars

The Magpies refused to dignify reports that owner Mike Ashley is lining up Blackburn's Mark Hughes as a replacement should things not improve drastically with a public response.

Privately, they insisted the 52-year-old has the club's full backing as he attempts to repair the damage of a dreadful 90 minutes at St James' Park on the back of a poor display in the 2-1 defeat at Reading seven days earlier.

That is a run which cannot be allowed to continue with Newcastle facing an eagerly-anticipated derby trip to Sunderland on Saturday.

Allardyce said: "You cannot play football on ability alone. Sometimes we play football or rely on our ability too much to win a game of football. But you need much, much more than that.

"I don't think anybody really had that good a game, the lads themselves know that.

"Week in, week out, you cannot have a day off in this league. You have got to go to your full extent every single game.

"You have got to stick to the basics, and if you don't do that as a side you will never be resilient, you will never look organised, and you will never be a good side in possession or a difficult side to break down out of possession.

"Because we went 3-0 down so early a lot of the players lost their discipline and shape. We became very ragged and ultimately, we lost our football and passing game.

"We created very little in the second half because we lost our shape and discipline."

Newcastle's demise on Saturday was all the more distressing because their home form had previously laid the foundation for a promising, if unspectacular, start to the new manager's reign.

Successive victories over Wigan, West Ham, Everton and Tottenham had gone some way to compensating for a less than impressive return on the road.

But the way in which Allardyce's new-look defence crumbled in the face of its first real test is a major concern and something he will have to address as a matter of urgency with Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones in the mood to exploit any sign of weakness.

Allardyce said: "We were looking very comfortable playing at home and defensively we were allowing our attacking fair players to go and create and score goals.

"But it has all gone out of the window. It's back to basics and back to square one. It's back to rolling our sleeves up and digging in.

"It doesn't need somebody like me, who has been in the game a long time, to say it was virtually put beyond our reach in the space of 12 minutes.

"Two defensive errors made life extremely difficult for us, and, of course, one wonder goal to begin with.

"We felt a little sorry for ourselves because they scored such a wonderful goal, and unless we get basic defending right, then life will be difficult for us."

Newcastle's problems are compounded by the loss of Roy Keane's former Manchester United team-mate Nicky Butt through suspension after he collected his fifth booking of the season, while keeper Shay Given is expected to be sidelined for up to three weeks with a recurrence of his groin problems.