Premier League: John Carver disappointed with mistakes but praises Newcastle performance in Chelsea defeat

Newcastle caretaker manager John Carver was disappointed his side switched off for Chelsea’s opening goal but was pleased to see his tactics come to fruition.

The Magpies conceded from a quick corner to go 1-0 down just before half time in a first half largely dominated by the visitors.

Diego Costa sealed a 2-0 victory for Jose Mourinho’s men and, while disappointed with the lapse in concentration, Carver is taking the positives from their performance.

“It’s a little bit unfortunate because we spoke about it yesterday and we covered the points on short corners, because against the best sides they get it down and play quickly and they can hurt you with the quality they’ve got,” he said.

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“The time when it came as well [hurt us] – just before half time. I thought if we could get in at 0-0 and regroup again and reinforce some of the gameplan points then we’d be OK, but the goal just came at the wrong time.

“We had two or three great chances – Moussa Sissoko hitting the post, and Cabella, who was outstanding all day, brought off a great save from the goalkeeper.

“We’ve come here and said ‘listen, give them the respect but make sure we don’t just park the bus’, and we didn’t do that. We actually took the game to them and I think we surprised Jose a little bit. But they got the result and that’s what counts.”

Ideas

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Carver has been in charge since the beginning of the month, but admitted he was relieved to finally have the time to implement some of his own tactics in the build-up to the game at Stamford Bridge.

“All we were doing over the Christmas period was playing a game, recovery, playing the next game, recovery, so it’s nice to have a full week and put your gameplan together,” he added.

“We did a lot of work on Tuesday, we did more on Thursday which was nice, and I think that showed on the pitch today. I put one or two of my ideas on to the pitch and I think it showed.”

The 49-year-old has openly admitted he would relish the chance to take over full-time at St James’ Park, but he revealed he has yet to have any talks with owner Mike Ashley or any of the board about the vacant position.

“I haven’t had any conversation with Mike,” he said. “I’ve had a few conversations with [managing director] Lee Charnley but it’s all just been about preparing the team for the next game.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s asked me to do it for the Southampton game and he’ll get my 100 per cent.”