Alan Irvine felt his side did enough to earn something from the game against Newcastle and that their level of performance was much improved from their loss at Watford 16 days prior to the clash with Chris Hughton's men.

"We will win more than we lose playing like that," he told PNE Player after the game.

"I asked the lads for a big performance and I thought we got that, without getting the goal that we probably deserved.

"We have played against a very strong Newcastle United team; players with very top experience at both club and international level. They were bringing international players off the bench, so we know the quality in their team and we matched them for most of the game.

"We have been undone by a great piece of finishing and we probably let ourselves down with a couple of little chances that we had.

"We had a lot of time in their half, created a lot of opportunities - not clear cut ones - but certainly a few and we deserved something out of the game, there is no question. We had more attempts on goal than they did, but you have to put them away."

Michael Tonge was given his debut in the middle of the park and an excellent debut from the Stoke City loanee, along with a strong performance from midfield partner Richard Chaplow gave North End the upper hand against their much-vaunted pairing of Smith and Nolan.

"I thought we were very good in the centre of midfield," continued the gaffer. "Both Michael Tonge and Richard Chaplow played well and I was absolutely delighted with the way they performed.

"It was a good start for Michael, to get through the full 90 minutes was magnificent."

The addition of one to the squad was however tempered with the loss of two during the game and one beforehand: "We fear that Youl's injury is quite a bad one; which is a real shame, because Youl has been out of the team just recently, we brought him back in for tactical reasons and I thought he did really really well in the first half.

"Unfortunately he has got quite a bad injury by the look of things, but we will have him looked at by a specialist on Tuesday and see how he is.

"Callum was just feeling that hamstring tying up and we can't afford to lose anybody. He tried to soldier on, but we were really taking a risk if we carried on with Callum any longer. It was his decision, I kept asking him if he was okay and eventually he said he had to come off.

"On Saturday morning Ross Wallace got a knock to his knee and he wasn't fit for today, but hopefully he will be fine for the game next week."

The loss of Callum Davidson came just before the winning goal, although the gaffer felt the influence of this was minimal: "We had just made the change when we conceded. It was two changes in a back four that had done really well and without it being anything to do with the two lads that came on it just disrupts you a little bit and that was perhaps a small contributory factor to the goal.

"However, we were much better today. We lost at Watford and that was an awful performance and something we weren't happy about, but I can't criticise the players for the way that they performed today and I said to them after the game that if they go about the game like that then we will win more games than we lose in this division."

Tickets are still available for North End's next game, away at Blackpool on Monday 30th November, an 8pm kick-off. Tickets are on sale during opening hours in person at the ticket office or over the phone on 0844 856 1966.