Joe Willock has sent a defiant message to Newcastle United’s relegation rivals that they “haven’t achieved anything yet” despite a nine game unbeaten run propelling them towards safety. Of course, the Magpies are not mathematically safe and the Newcastle midfielder knows that plenty hard work lies ahead.
Joe Willock said: “We’re not going to let one or two games knock us. Since the manager has come in we’ve come so far and we’re looking to brush the Everton game off and go into the next game with clear minds. We know what we have to do and know what we can do to get the three points. We have a massive objective that we need to get before we can say that we’re safe. We need to go into this game with the mindset to win, we need the three points and continue striving to push up the table. I keep going back to the manager, the staff and how good the group is. We have brilliant professionals and players that have been here before. We need to stick together and everyone take leadership and help each other. If one of the players is not feeling too confident going into it, we need to stick together. That’s how we got the unbeaten run and we can’t lose that.”
Newcastle were among the bookmakers’ favourites to go down prior to the January transfer window. An impressive nine game unbeaten run put the Magpies back on the right track and Willock says confidence did not waver in camp despite a torrid start to the season.
Joe Willock added: “Even when we were going through the bad run, I never had that doubt in the team and our players. We have so much quality and players who can change the game in an instant, we are professionals and never gave up on each other. We’re happy it came at the right time with the unbeaten run to show what we can do. We haven’t done anything yet, we need to keep pushing and we have nine games to go. There are nine important games and we want to win every one. Starting on Sunday and look on from there.”