Allardyce worried by away record

The Magpies' 2-1 defeat at Reading meant they have now dropped 11 out of 12 points on the road since the Allardyce era began with a 3-1 victory over Bolton, the club he had just left, on the opening day.

Allardyce said: "Our away form is obviously a huge concern after this result because a point, after the fact that we had lost the previous two away games, would have been very nice and given us a bit of confidence."

He added: "Now we get ever more edgy as time goes on because we have not been able to get a result away from home.

"It is all very well playing well at home but sometimes away from home you have got to be able to dig in and we didn't do that."

Newcastle had been second best for much of the game but thought they were on course for a point when Michael Duberry's clumsy own goal cancelled out Dave Kitson's opener.

But substitute Shane Long swung the game back in Reading's favour with a goal just seconds after replacing Leroy Lita, who had been guilty of squandering a number of clear chances.

It was Reading's best performance of the season and was hailed by manager Steve Coppell as like "seeing an old friend". But Allardyce was disappointed his players had not risen to the occasion after he had used a video of another side's success a the Madejski Stadium as a blueprint to beat the Royals.

He said: "The players should have been well aware of what they needed to do by the amount of time we spent through the week saying 'this is Reading'.

"We showed them the video where West Ham won by three goals by playing on the break but we never did that. We just kept giving possession away and gave the opposition another chance to put the ball in our box so it was really disappointing. We ended up chasing them too much."