We must focus on football - Kinnear - Sport in brief

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The 61-year-old was in the stands at St James' Park - he had still to serve a two-game touchline ban from his spell in charge of Nottingham Forest - to see the Magpies lose 2-1 to Blackburn.

He said: "We needed to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We need to get rid of all the issues that are going on - Is the club being sold? Are we bringing back Kevin Keegan? - until it actually happens. We need to focus on playing football, it's as simple as that."

He added: "And they need to play football well. But what has not helped matters, I am told, is that six or seven of the best players are missing.

"On the good side, with the international break coming up we could have four or five of them back.

"We need to be more vocal in the dressing room, we need more input. It's something that I have always had throughout my career, feedback from players, players who show emotion, players who want to win, players who have things to say.

"I was pleased with the second half. When we got the early goal we had a reasonable chance with Geremi and he tried to bring it down in the six-yard box when I thought he might have got a shot off.

"But we were tighter at the back, we limited them to maybe two shots in the second half. Having said that, we need to get more end product ourselves from the strikers we have."