Ba upbeat despite Newcastle slump

Newcastle United’s leading scorer Demba Ba has vowed not to let the club’s good start to the season go to waste.

Following successive defeats to Chelsea and Norwich City, Newcastle have slipped to seventh in the table, but Ba insists that the club’s season is not going to unravel.

“We’re not going to let that happen” said Ba, who also described Saturday’s home clash against Swansea City as a must-win.

“We’ll make sure we will prepare our game and we’re going to go onto the pitch to win the game. We need to win.”

Despite a strong start to the campaign which had seen Newcastle occupy the top four, the Senegalese striker believes that a Champions League finish would be nigh on impossible, instead insisting he will be content with a top-10 finish this season.

“It’s difficult to get into the top four,” the former Hoffenheim and West Ham United striker said.

“Have you seen the teams? They’re unbelievable. If we can make it into the top half of the table we’ll be happy.”

Following injuries to centre-back duo Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor, full-backs James Perch and Danny Simpson were forced to fill in at the heart of defence.

While Ba admits the injuries contributed to the 4-2 loss at Carrow Road, he insists the team as a whole is responsible for the loss.

“I don’t think we had a good game as a team, we could have been better,” Ba said.

“We conceded the goals at a bad moment and those goals put our heads down.”

“It was difficult coming into the match with so many injuries. We lost our best players last week in (Fabricio) Coloccini and (Steven) Taylor and started with a brand new defence.”

“If our centre-backs were big, massive and could head the ball it could have been different. That was the key.”

“They were playing long balls and it was difficult for Danny Simpson to compete against (Grant) Holt or against Steve Morison.”

Taylor has been ruled out for the rest of the season with the Achilles injury he sustained against Chelsea.

Nonetheless, with others set to return from injury, Ba is confident that Newcastle can recover their early season momentum, sooner rather than later.

“We have Williamson, who is on his way back, we have Coloccini who will be fit for next week, Cheick (Tiote) as well. If we have our full squad – minus (Sylvain) Marveaux and Taylor – we’ll be okay.”