Alan Shearer issues savage Newcastle assessment after 'awful' West Ham loss

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Alan Shearer didn't mince his words as he hammered Newcastle's "awful" display in their loss to West Ham - which leaves them in the bottom half having already lost four of their ten outings.

The Hammers have been abject for much of the season but downed the Magpies to gain just their second win of the season. Jacob Murphy had put Eddie Howe's side ahead in the capital within five minutes, but that was as good as it got for the visitors.

Newcastle are still without a win on the road and found themselves behind come half-time. Lucas Paqueta, who has again been linked with the exit door, drew them level before Sven Botman came up with a comical own goal in first-half stoppage time.

The Magpies couldn't find a response and Tomas Soucek's strike seven minutes into added time ensured it would be a forgettable trip back to the north east and Shearer was critical at the interval - and equally as brutal come full-time.

At half-time the former striker said on social media: "What terrible first half from Newcastle. Sloppy and leggy. Too many errors." After the game was up he then claimed: "That was awful. No better 2nd half. Not one positive. Lazy. Leggy. Lethargic. Well done West Ham."

Newcastle are yet to win successive games in the Premier League this season and their reverse in east London means they sit 13th and are already looking up at the European places, which they have finished in for two of the past three seasons.

Howe had little excuse for his team's poor showing as they turn their attention to Champions League action. He said: "I can’t really defend the performance, it was really disappointing after that start. I thought we could control the game but we didn’t. We let West Ham in with some uncharacteristic errors.

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"Collectively, we were off today and you could see that. We gave ourselves problems. We are hugely disappointed and frustrated with ourselves because we’ve missed a huge opportunity for back-to-back wins. The feel of the team was wrong. We were lacking in physicality today.

"I have to go away and reflect on it. This falls into the category that we didn’t perform. This was a poor performance but they happen. It leaves us with a gap to bridge and we can only do that with consistency and we haven’t found that this season."

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