Shirtliff Proud of Players

Speaking in today's Nottingham Evening Post, Shirtliff said ""You are not going to come here and get many chances," he said. "If you convert one then it's a whole different game. But it wasn't to be."

"What more can I say? I'm extremely pleased with the players and I hope our younger players will see that as a benchmark for their futures."

"I thought we played very well in the first half and got at them. We passed the ball well, but in the second half we couldn't retain possession of the ball. That was down to a bit of tiredness and Newcastle upping the pressure."

"I was thinking about what I could do to get more possession of the ball and see what we could do to hurt them because we didn't do that enough."

"But to come to a fantastic stadium ... what more can you ask? They were fantastic all afternoon."

"At half time I said to the players 'If you can keep that level going, you never know what can happen'. But Newcastle upped their game and that bit of quality was the difference."

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full coverage of the match in todays Post, including a full match report and more reaction.