John Carver admits Newcastle are in relegation fight after seventh straight defeat

John Carver has admitted Newcastle are in the midst of a relegation battle after they slipped to a seventh consecutive Premier League defeat at home to Swansea.

Ayoze Perez’s first goal this calendar year was cancelled out by Nelson Oliveira on the stroke of half-time before Glyfi Sigurdsson and Jack Cork sealed the victory for the travelling Swans.

And, having started the game the brighter of the two sides, Carver was left disappointed as the defeat made him the first manager in the club’s history to lose seven consecutive Premier League games.

“It has been a (relegation) battle for four or five weeks now, and we know we’re in a battle,” he told Sky Sports. “We can’t hide from it, we’ve got to deal with it and get on with it.

“It’s always hard to take when you’ve lost a game, but I thought in the first half we actually did quite well.

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“And, give or take five mad minutes just before half-time and just after half-time I think we could have got something out of the game.

“We were 1-0 up we had a great chance when Riviere had a header that gets saved by the goalkeeper and then we shot ourselves in the foot yet again just before half-time. It’s disappointing.

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“We know for a fact that we don’t have the biggest of sides and we conceded with a set-play again.

“It’s not as though Swansea opened us up - they haven’t done that, it’s come from a set-play. We’ve got to deal with set-plays a lot better.

“I don’t think Tim Krul had a save to make other than picking the ball out of his net in the first half. He had a bit more to do in the second half and they caused us a few more problems."

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Siem de Jong, who made his return to the Newcastle set up after eight months on the sidelines with a collapsed lung, scored a late consolation for the hosts, the one positive Carver took from the game as his side capitulated.

Despite this, Carver praised his side for the character they displayed in trying to get back into the game.

“The one positive I will take it is that we got Siem on the pitch and thankfully he scored,” Carver added.

“When you lose so many games your confidence is going to be hit, but not just the players, everyone around the stadium – they say here we go again.

“But what I will say is that there’s character in the dressing room, they stayed with it and kept going until the end. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough.”