Newcastle United star apologies to fans after Tottenham defeat - and issues rallying call

Bruno Guimaraes has issued an apology to Newcastle United fans after the club’s 5-1 hammering at Tottenham Hotspur.

In front of the 3,000-strong travelling supporters, Fabian Schar handed Eddie Howe’s side the lead on 38 minutes but Ben Davies quickly levelled before half-time.

After the interval, the Magpies imploded with two goals inside the opening 10 minutes from Matt Doherty and Son Heung-min.

Guimaraes, left out of the starting XI, was introduced to restore order to the midfield on the hour-mark, though Spurs added to their advantage through Emerson Royal and Steven Bergwijn.

It was a third defeat in a row for Howe’s men, who remain nine points above the Premier League zone ahead of hosting Wolverhampton Wanderers on Friday.

Guimaraes, a £35million January signing from Lyon, apologised for the display in North London as he sent a rallying call to supporters.

“As a group, we have to apologise to the fans for our performance today,” Guimaraes tweeted.

“We need your support. It’s fundamental as always for the next three home matches to come.

“Let´s play together!”

Magpies co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi summed up the heavy defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in two words: “bad day”.

“The manner of the second goal was disappointing,” Howe said. “It was so close to half-time, and we had to feel ourselves into it - we didn’t allow ourselves to do that.

“We then had to chase the game, depending on which way you look at it, a very aggressive way. We shouldn’t have done that. We became very expansive and took risks with the ball, it was too early in the game to do that, we got punished by a top team.

“Some of their goals on the transitions were very good, from our perspective, not so good. It was due to the ambition to get into the match - we didn’t manage that side of things very well.”