'No amount of credit in the bank is big enough' - Eddie Howe fires warning to out-of-form Newcastle players as Magpies suffer shock home defeat to Chris Wood-inspired Nottingham Forest

Chris Wood was in red-hot form against his former club as his hat-trick helped Nottingham Forest thrash Newcastle United 3-1 at St. James' Park on Boxing Day.

Eddie Howe was understandably frustrated after yet another defeat as he pointed out that his players will have to work harder in training sessions to turn things around for the club.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Howe said, "Whenever you lose games it is an uncomfortable feeling when your team is not at its peak. Concerned? You deal with a lot of emotions when you don’t get the result you want. I am feeling that. I like to keep my thoughts and analyse properly and make tweaks and changes. My gut feeling is that the answer lies within. The players we have are good enough. We have suffered those injuries. We have not had it easy. We are not at our best physically.

"We were not quite at our best and when you are not you get punished. There was a lot of good first half but the last action or pass was missing and that was frustrating. We wanted to make it 2-0 and in a commanding position. It has been an intense period. The players have physically given everything and we have acknowledged we have not been at our best and that is all we can do. We can now return to the training pitch for the first time in what feels like months. We need training ground time to refine missing parts of our game."

He added, "Some of our decision-making was off, positioning or technically. It wasn’t a big tactical issue, we didn’t deal with moments in the game. “I’ll be prepared to make any change that I think can benefit either the performance or the result and of course, players are accountable for what they deliver.

"No amount of credit in the bank is big enough, you have to earn everything you get from the game. I’m a firm believer in that so players know they have to perform and we have to change our short-term form for sure. It will be nice to build up to games and training. I think we have suffered not having training ground time. And the inability to rotate the team has caught up with us."

The Magpies have now lost six out of their last seven matches across all competitions and suffered their eighth Premier League defeat in the ongoing campaign. They have crashed out of the Champions League group stage after losing to AC Milan in their final match while they lost to Chelsea on penalties and bowed out of the Carabao Cup last week.

Howe's side, who are currently seventh in the Premier League standings halfway into the season, will be next seen in action on New Year's Day as they face Liverpool at Anfield.