Burnley skipper sends defiant message after narrow defeat with 10 men against Newcastle United
A defiant Josh Cullen insists there wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance Burnley were going to go “under” during their narrow defeat to Newcastle United.
Trailing 2-0 at half-time with Lucas Pires sent off, the writing appeared to be on the wall for Scott Parker and his desperately out-of-form Clarets side.
But the visitors had other ideas, fighting back during the second-half, reducing the deficit through Zian Flemming’s penalty before coming within a whisker of levelling during the dying seconds of stoppage-time.
While ultimately Burnley succumbed to a sixth straight defeat, Cullen felt they showed enough to give them plenty of hope going forwards.
“That shows the fight and spirit of this team,” the Clarets skipper told the club’s official YouTube channel.
“Obviously we haven’t been on a great run recently, we’re fully aware of that. But we know we’ve got that spirit in the team that there’s no way we’re going under.
“A lot of teams could have gone under and it could have ended 4 or 5-0 and you use the excuse: ‘well, we were down to 10 men’.
“That’s not the mentality we have though. We knew we could stay in the game and we knew the next goal was crucial, whatever time it came and we managed to get it.
“We have a huge chance at the end but it just wasn’t to be, but I’m proud of the effort and proud of the character for sure.”
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Frustratingly for Burnley, Newcastle’s two goals – as well as the red card – came off the back of a bright opening 30 minutes.
“The overall performance was really good, even with 11 men,” Cullen added. “It felt like we were well in the game, we were having good spells in the game and we were right in it, for sure.
“In the first-half, the game changes a little bit with the two goals and the red card and you come in at half-time asking yourself how we find ourselves where we are.
“To be 2-0 down at St James’ Park with 10 men is not an easy place to be at half-time, so you have to show a lot of fight and a lot of spirit, but also a lot of quality as well to be able to stay in the game.
“We stayed in the game and we obviously got the goal late on and on another day we have another one, but the bravery, the fight and the quality the lads showed to come to a place like this and compete with the squad that Newcastle has got…the overriding feeling is I’m proud of the lads and I’m proud of the performance, even though we haven’t got the result.
“We can’t hide from that, we know we need results to stay in the league. But if we can take the performance and the positives from this into every game this season, I’m sure we’ll be alright.”
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