Newcastle boss John Carver blasted his side’s performance at Sunderland as ‘abysmal’ and claimed the 1-0 defeat could cost him the chance of landing the job at St James’ Park on a full-time basis.
Carver, who is in the job until the end of the season, saw his side suffer a fifth straight Wear-Tyne derby defeat at the hands of Sunderland thanks to Jermain Defoe’s wonder strike just before half-time.
And the 50-year-old did not hold back in his post-match interview, claiming his side were second best to Sunderland.
“The way we performed in the first half I thought we were abysmal ,” Carver told Sky Sports.
“I always talk about any side of mine should give 100 per cent. I’m not saying they didn’t give 100 per cent, but we were poor.
“You can’t come to a stadium like this, on an occasion like this, and perform like we did in the first half. From there it’s an uphill battle.
“It was a world-class strike on Jermain’s weaker foot. If we had of got in at half-time at 0-0 I would have been delighted because we were second best in every department.
“Unfortunately we didn’t and it was a great strike. We came back in the second half and huffed and puffed, but it still wasn’t good enough.”
Newcastle have been hit by a string of injuries in recent weeks and Carver, who fielded a makeshift back four at the Stadium of Light, reserved some praise for his defender and goalkeeper.
However, he criticised the rest of his team, saying his long-term job prospects at Newcastle are now in the balance following the poor performance.
“Without going into it too much what I will say is the back four is a makeshift back four and I thought they stuck at their jobs ever so well, along with the goalkeeper,” said Carver.
“They deserve a bit of credit but the other units in the team, I’m not happy with.”
And when asked whether the result will affect his chances of landing the Newcastle job full-time, he said: “I think it will. You’ve got to win these games and no matter who you are playing against, you’ve got to win football matches.
“At the moment we’re not doing that and the thing I can’t understand is how we can go so well against Arsenal two weeks ago and perform so badly today.
“People talk about my passion before the game but you’ve got to have a bit of thought, and that wasn’t there today.
“We’ve got seven games left and there’s still a long way to go. Losing the derby game doesn’t help the situation but I’m a positive guy.
“I’ll prepare the team for the Liverpool game now and it’s my job now to get the guys in that dressing room ready for the game.”