STEVE McCLAREN branded Newcastle United’s display as “unacceptable” as they crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Everton, and admitted his under-performing players are running out of opportunities to secure Premier League safety.

The Magpies remain rooted in the relegation zone after Aaron Lennon’s first-half strike and two late penalties from Ross Barkley condemned them to a fifth successive away defeat in all competitions.

On a shambolic night from a Newcastle perspective, McClaren’s side finished with ten men as Jamaal Lascelles was dismissed for a stoppage-time foul on Barkley, and are facing a defensive injury crisis ahead of Saturday’s game with West Brom.

Chancel Mbemba and Paul Dummett were both forced off with injuries, and the night would have been much worse had Rob Elliot not made three superb second-half saves that saw him tip the ball onto the woodwork.

While McClaren had talked up his players’ performance in a number of their recent defeats, he was less conciliatory last night, with fears of relegation continuing to mount despite the arrival of four new signings in last month’s transfer window.

“We had bad results against Leicester and Crystal Palace where the players’ attitude was questioned, but since then we’ve had a perfect reaction,” said the Newcastle head coach. “The attitude has been great and we’ve stuck together and played as a team. Tonight, I felt that disappointingly we kind of returned to that level. That’s unacceptable.

“Absolutely, some have fallen short. We’ve told them that and they know it. That’s not what we come to expect, and you can’t afford to do that with the games ebbing away. We’ve got 14 games left, and we can’t waste a game now. But that’s what we’ve done tonight.”

With Lascelles suspended for Saturday’s game with the Baggies, and Mbemba a major doubt after he suffered a recurrence of a long-standing ankle problem, Steven Taylor could be forced into action alongside Fabricio Coloccini at the weekend.

Rolando Aarons deputised for Dummett in the second half at Goodison Park, and having failed to sign a left-back on transfer deadline-day, McClaren could be forced to keep the winger in the back four in two days’ time.

While Newcastle have invested £80m on new players since the end of last season, only £8m was spent on a defender (Mbemba), but McClaren denied that more attention should have been paid to the backline when reinforcements were being sought last month.

“In terms of things that could go wrong, they did go wrong,” he said. “That was the case with the injuries, but we’ll just have to dust ourselves down, see who we’ve got fit, and make sure we give a reaction against West Brom.

“We’ve got enough centre-halves with Steven Taylor, Jamaal Lascelles, Chancel Mbemba and Fabricio Coloccini.

“Yes, with the left-back, we really tried to bring someone in, but failed to do so. But that’s just one of those things that happens. It was unfortunate that all the problems came in defence tonight.”

Those problems were exacerbated by Lascelles’ senseless sending off, with the defender bundling over Barkley in the box even though there was no chance of Newcastle getting themselves back into the game, given that they were trailing by two goals deep into stoppage time.

“He put himself in that situation, and you’re always liable to give away a penalty and a red card, which unfortunately Jamaal did,” said McClaren. “It’s a blow for us because we’ve lost him and Chancel now, although we hope Chancel will be better (for Saturday).

“We’ve also got Steven Taylor, who is coming back to fitness. We have to look at the wounded and get a team out for Saturday now.”