Newcastle United fresh injury concern ahead of Ipswich Town clash - two ruled out

Jason Tindall admits Newcastle United’s squad is feeling the effects of three games in six days.

Following back-to-back home wins against Manchester United and Crystal Palace, Tindall opted against making changes for Saturday’s trip to Aston Villa. And the Magpies were unable to extend their winning run to seven matches, losing 4-1 at Villa Park.

Villa opened the scoring inside 40 seconds through Ollie Watkins but United managed to draw themselves level when Fabian Schar headed home Harvey Barnes’ cross. But in the second half, the home side surged to victory with goals from Ian Maatsen, Amadou Onana and an own goal from Dan Burn in the space of 11 minutes.

Jason Tindall reflects on Aston Villa 4-1 Newcastle United

Newcastle will now enjoy a seven-day rest before welcoming 18th-place Ipswich Town to St James’ Park.

“It was obviously a difficult evening,” Tindall reflected. “I felt on reflection over 90 minutes that Aston Villa deserved to win the game. In the first half, I felt we'd done alright off the back of the early setback when we conceded the goal sign early, the lads showed great character to get themselves back into the game.

“Then maybe looking at the second half, maybe it was just one step too far, three games in six days, maybe caught up with us, certainly probably around the hour mark.”

When asked if he regretted not rotating the starting line-up, Tindall replied: “Possibly but when a team is in such a great moment and the players are in such good form, it does make it difficult to change a team.

“I could quite easily be sitting here having made three or four changes and the same result happens and then probably everyone's saying ‘why did you change your team?’. It can work both ways.

“I probably felt that on reflection, certainly in the second half, maybe it was just a step too far for the lads physically with the physical effort that they've had in the previous two games.”

Newcastle United handed fresh injury concern - two already ruled out

Tindall made four substitutions in the second half, bringing on Anthony Gordon, Emil Krafth, Joe Willock, Callum Wilson and Matt Targett. Fabian Schar was brought off in the 82nd minute and it was confirmed after the game that the former Switzerland international was feeling his hamstring.

“Fabby was feeling his hamstring in the game so I felt it was the wise move to bring him off and to try and protect him, to make sure that hopefully he's OK for the remaining games,” Tindall revealed.

Newcastle are already without two defenders in Jamaal Lascelles and Lewis Hall for the rest of the campaign, although there’s a chance Sven Botman could return against the Tractor Boys.

Jason Tindall’s message to Newcastle United fans

Despite their defeat at Villa Park, Newcastle remain in control of qualifying for the Champions League ahead of the remaining give matches. They sit third in the Premier League table with a two point advantage over the chasing pack.

“The message to the players, to everyone, is that we can't lose sight of where we are, we're third in the Premier League, and if you would have said to anyone at the football club at the start of the season, would you be happy with being third in the Premier League with five games to go, I think everybody would have said yes,” Tindall said.

“We certainly can't lose sight of that, we've done incredibly well to get ourselves in that position, we've been really, really consistent, delivered some excellent performances.

“That's the biggest message, is to make sure that we rest, recover, and then when we get back to work, we prepare right to go and deliver a performance against Ipswich.”

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