FABRICIO COLOCCINI has angrily denied that Newcastle United’s players have given up on the rest of the season, and claimed anyone who is unconcerned about the threat of spending the next 12 months in the Championship must be “stupid”.

Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Leicester City marked a new low in the Magpies’ fortunes this term, with the concession of two set-piece goals and a penalty suggesting a lack of application and commitment while the dismissal of both Mike Williamson and Daryl Janmaat exposed an alarming absence of composure and concern for the club’s plight.

Coloccini was singled out for special criticism on Saturday’s Match of the Day, with his poor tackling and dreadful marking playing a key part in each of Leicester’s opening two goals.

While Leicester’s players were sharp, aggressive and committed from the outset, their opponents offered precious little resistance as they slumped to a club record eighth successive defeat in all competitions.

At the final whistle, the visiting fans chanted “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” as the Newcastle squad trudged over to the away end, but Coloccini fiercely rejects suggestions that he and his team-mates simply do not care about the club’s worsening plight.

“We haven’t given in, it would be wrong to say that,” said the Magpies skipper. “It’s not true that we don’t care. If you go to the training ground, you will see that we train hard and do everything we can to be successful.

“Sometimes, you can have bad times, but it is not because you don’t care. We are trying everything to win. The most important thing here is the club and the supporters. We are playing for them, and we should be better than we are.

“Any player who wants to play in the Championship must be stupid. It would be crazy to think like that. But now, we all have to understand that our position is serious.”

Coloccini bore the brunt of the supporters’ fury at the final whistle as he was at the head of the group that walked over to the away end, but while he admits it was difficult to be on the receiving end of such a furious response, he maintains it was important to attempt to say sorry.

“It hurts when you go over to the fans at the end and they are booing you, but we have to understand, and I do, that they are disappointed and they have spent a lot of money watching us,” he said. “Not just this week, but also other weeks, they have to come a long way.

“It’s not just this game where they have had to have that disappointment, it has been going on for quite a few games now. You have to go over there and say thank you, it’s important, but I guess they didn’t want to see us. We know we are not doing the right things.

“Of course we can understand the way the supporters are feeling right now. But we have to get our heads up and be strong.”

Coloccini was one of the last Newcastle players to leave the dressing room an hour or so after the final whistle, and the Argentinian admits some harsh words were exchanged at both the half-time interval and the end of the game.

“It was angry in the dressing room,” he said. “Everyone was angry at half-time – the players and the manager as well. You can’t accept those types of things.

“It is normal to be angry when you know it is not good enough. It has to be like that. We have to wake up because we are in a fight. But it’s not suddenly dawned on us, all of this. We all know it is serious.”