'Not acceptable': Fabian Schar says Newcastle were simply not good enough against Crystal Palace

Newcastle United were humbled by Crystal Palace last night as the Eagles secured their third win against top-half competition in a row with a 2-0 win.

Eddie Howe's men were second-best in every area of the park last night as they put in one of the most cowardly performances we've ever seen since Howe took over.

There have been a few stinkers this season, and while we could sit and make excuses with the injuries and such, last night was simply a case of poor attitude from the players. There was absolutely no desire to win.

Had Sandro Tonali been on the pitch there'd be a match-fixing investigation underway, that's how bad it looked. At one point I remarked to a friend that the defenders must have been getting paid per touch as they were so reluctant to play it forward, instead choosing to play it amongst themselves in dangerous areas.

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It took the whole team working together to lose this one

Obviously, a big chunk of the blame has to go to Eddie Howe who got it all wrong tactically and with his team selection, trying to replicate the tactics that worked so well against Tottenham up against a team that play exactly nothing like Spurs.

Fabian Schar started the game well with a superb block early on, but like the rest of his teammates, faded into obscurity and after the game he told NUFC TV that they simply weren't good enough.

"It was from start to finish not a good game, especially the first 25 minutes was not good.

"It's difficult when you're not on your best game in the Premier League, it's difficult and that showed today and obviously it's not acceptable how we played today I would say. As a team we have to learn from it and be much better on Saturday."

Newcastle now have some catching up to do

As a result of that defeat, Newcastle lost ground in the race for Europe with Manchester United picking up a win against our next opponents, Sheffield United.

Newcastle absolutely must win their remaining games to keep the pressure on now, and that penultimate game of the season against Manchester United just keeps getting more and more significant.

As a side note, should Newcastle win on Saturday they would condemn the Blades to relegation as Chris Wilder's men must win to avoid the drop for another week.