Newcastle United are lacking confidence and don’t look like a team who want to move the ball forward. That is the worrying admission of their goalkeeper, Karl Darlow, in the aftermath of their disappointing 1-0 defeat to Brentford in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals. Newcastle put in a lifeless display in West London and the pressure is now cranking up on manager Steve Bruce after a number of disappointing displays this term. The United boss called it a ‘wonderful opportunity’ to progress to a semi-final ahead of playing an opponent in a lower division but it was an opportunity his side failed to grasp. Reflecting on the defeat at the Brentford Community Stadium, Darlow could not hide his disappointment.
Karl Darlow said “We are massively [disappointed], We didn’t play well enough again and we didn’t start the game quickly for what it was – the chance to get into a semi-final. It wasn’t good enough. Passing the ball, moving it quickly – we should have been bossing the game. We are a Premier League team and it wasn’t good enough on the pitch. We need to go back and work even harder to make things better. Yeah, definitely, To play a Championship club to get into the semi-finals of the cup, we have got to win these games and we have got to show more on the pitch. We weren’t great and everybody knows that. We need to look at ourselves and make sure we put it right, quickly. The ball didn’t drop for us up front today. It was a cagey cup affair and one goal either way was going to win it, Unfortunately, it has gone to them so we need to be making sure we come to these sorts of games and making sure we boss the game. We should have come out with the victory and got ourselves into a semi-final but we have not done that tonight. We are the same [as the fans]. We are frustrated and I am frustrated as well. We need to go back to the training ground and find some confidence more than anything. We look like we don’t want to go forward and we aren’t passing through the lines well enough. We need to make sure we go and put whatever we need to right. We have to work harder than what we did tonight and move the ball a lot quicker.”
