McClaren - Nobody Has Tougher Start To Premier League Than Newcastle

The NUFC head coach will hope his side can cope despite their "tough" start to the campaign.

by Chris Waugh

Steve McClaren believes no other Barclays Premier League side "has got a tougher start" than Newcastle United - and his Magpies should be reasonably happy with a point from their opener against a "tough" Southampton side. In his first competitive match in charge of the Magpies at St James' Park, McClaren's side were denied victory via a late Shane Long goal that saw the match finish 2-2 - and the Saints could even have nicked it late on, with Saido Mane squandering a couple of golden opportunities. Goals from Papiss Cisse and debutant Georginio Wijnaldum had put the Magpies ahead following Graziano Pelle's opener for the visitors, and Long's header secured Southampton a point.

Next up for Newcastle is a trip to Swansea City on Saturday, before they visit Old Trafford to face Manchester United the following weekend and then host Arsenal at St James' Park at the end of August. The Magpies also travel to Manchester City, as well as to bitter rivals Sunderland, and welcome Champions Chelsea to Tyneside inside their first 10 fixtures. And McClaren believes Newcastle have the toughest run of opening games in the entire division. Speaking to NUFCTV (paywall) after the Southampton draw, McClaren said:
"Someone was talking about us having a tough start - I don't think anybody has got a tougher start than we have. "Southampton have played games already, we really haven't - they know what they've got, (and have) worked on a system for a long time, we haven't. This was always going to be tough and next week is the same. "This Swansea team is very good. They should have won the game at Chelsea I thought and it gets harder and harder but as I said it's one game at a time and we need to build on this and we can. "We recover now, get our energy back and go forward."
How tough those fixtures turn out to be, only time will tell... CLICK HERE to read the Match Report from Newcastle United 2-2 Southampton.And CLICK HERE to read the Player Ratings from the game.Finally, CLICK HERE to read "10 Things We Learned From The Game".For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to follow WhatCulture.com/NUFC on Twitter and Facebook.

Contributor
Contributor

NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.