NEWCASTLE UNITED will learn from their first eight games of the season and improve after the international break.

That is the verdict of head coach Steve McClaren, who oversaw a 6-1 defeat at Manchester City despite leading for 30 minutes at the Etihad Stadium.

Sergio Aguero stole the show with a five-goal haul as City hit back in emphatic style, and McClaren feels that his players will learn from the experience.

With Newcastle bottom of the Premier League and McClaren yet to taste victory in the league since taking charge of the Magpies, it should be a cause for concern – but the former Middlesbrough manager can see the positives within the results.

“We re-evaluate all the time,” said McClaren. “What’s happened in the first eight games will go a long way to how the players and everyone within the club reacts. We want to take that hurt and what we’ve done well and take that forward.

“I’ve said before, I’ve come to grounds, I’ve come to Arsenal and was beaten 7-0 and in May we’re in an FA Cup semi-final and a UEFA Cup final. It depends on the reaction in the dressing room.

“You’ve seen today the work they’ve been doing, the system that has been in play, against Chelsea and City first half was very good. Then we’ve just let ourselves down in that 15-minute spell.

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“Give credit to Manchester City. That’s why they’ll probably win the league. You can see that within them. They’re licking their wounds from last season and they’re determined now. Sometimes you just have to accept that.”

McClaren reiterated his message in the run-up to the game, that turning around Newcastle’s fortunes is a long-term project, and admitted he was well aware of how tough that task would be.

“When you’re in it, they’re all big,” said the head coach. “You’re absolutely right, it is tough. But we knew it would be. We knew from past history and we’ve said what needs to be done cannot be turned around in a short space of time. It needs patience in the process.

“You’ve seen in the last two weeks the work that has been done, what this team is capable of doing, how it can play, and we looked in the first half a very good Premier League team. In the second half we didn’t look a very good team. Consistency over 90 minutes, there’s a team in there, we’ve seen that. We need to produce that for 90 minutes now.”