Sorry Newcastle are not good enough, says Carver

LONDON (Reuters) - Newcastle United interim coach John Carver said his players are sometimes not good enough after a 3-1 loss against Tottenham Hotspur continued a run of six successive Premier League defeats.

Newcastle fell behind after 30 minutes at St James' Park to Nacer Chadli's composed shot from distance but Jack Colback equalised just after halftime.

Christian Eriksen restored Spurs' lead with a floated free-kick and Harry Kane struck late on to keep Newcastle looking over their shoulders with five games remaining as they are 14th with 35 points, seven more than 18th-placed Leicester City

"Everyone was nervous and tentative and that showed," Carver told Sky Sports.

"We had a great start to the second-half and got the goal which gave us some momentum, but then conceded a poor goal.

"What I will say is these guys keep going and give it a go but sometimes they just might not be good enough.

"It was a huge kick in the teeth to concede the second goal, but there is enough experience in the dressing room to deal with the situation."

Carver replaced Alan Pardew as interim coach in January but the 50-year-old has failed to revive Newcastle's fortunes and their dismal run of form matches a similar barren spell to last season when they lost six straight games from March to April.

Newcastle supporters talked of boycotting the match against Spurs but 47,427 fans were at St James' Park to witness another defeat and leave Carver scratching his head for answers.

"Losing another game is not a nice feeling. We have enough experience. That's the one thing that will keep us going," Carver said.

"We've had a good conversation and we need to come up with a solution and it's my job to do that.

"No one is going to come from Mars with a load of new players, so it's the guys in the dressing room who have to turn this around."

(Reporting By Michael Hann, editing by Pritha Sarkar)