NEWCASTLE UNITED skipper Jamaal Lascelles has warned his team-mates that they can’t afford to dwell on the frustrations of a poor night at Turf Moor or they risk spoiling an encouraging start to life back in the Premier League.

The Magpies slipped down to ninth after the narrow reversal against Burnley when a dire night’s work ended in disappointment when Jeff Hendrick made the most of an error to secure three points for the home side.

Newcastle would still have taken such a league position at the start of their first season back in the Premier League, but having had a taste of what they are capable of they are keen to stay in the top half.

For that to happen they know they need to recover quickly by ensuring that losing at Burnley is not the start of a poor sequence of results; with Lascelles urging everyone at the club to focus on bouncing back swiftly against Bournemouth on Saturday.

He said: “In the Championship this team learned to put results like the one at Burnley in the past quickly and move on. You can’t be too happy when you win and you can’t be too down when you lose.

“It’s important that you stay humble, stay level headed and you’ve got to respect every team but at the same time be confident you’re going to beat them. That’s how we’ll be approaching Saturday.”

Both Burnley and Bournemouth have shown in recent years how to establish themselves in the top-flight after promotion and that is what Rafael Benitez will be looking to do.

He will be doing so despite the prospect of the club being sold in the coming months, although it was claimed yesterday that it would be “extremely unlikely” that Mike Ashley gets his wish to sell before Christmas granted.

Former Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow, who worked with Benitez at Anfield when there were takeover talks, has suggested that a sale is more likely to take place later in the season, even though Ashley has proven he is desperate to sell.

Purslow also believes Benitez is crucial to any sale and the progress of the club, so Ashley needs to keep him onside. The players, though, are trying not to think about any battles for control in the boardroom.

The aim among the squad members is to ensure they don’t make the sort of errors they did at Turf Moor, where Ayoze Perez was caught trying to turn in his own half and that led to Burnley hitting the winner.

Lascelles said: “It was one lapse in concentration. They didn’t have many chances, or when they did we dealt with them fairly easily.

“But down the other end we had two or three chances where we could have equalised at the end. I suppose it’s just one of those games where things didn’t quite go for us.

“Obviously we’re disappointed but we aren’t going to let our heads drop. We’re going to look to turn things around on Saturday.”

Newcastle have lost two of their last eight matches and Benitez wants progress to continue, despite the disappointing manner of his team’s display at Burnley. They were hardly brilliant against Crystal Palace in their previous outing either, although Mikel Merino headed in a late winner.

Lascelles said: “We’re very disappointed with the defeat. Turf Moor’s a tough place to go, they’ve played this way for years where they’re hard to break down, they’re good at set pieces and they’re a compact team.

“Maybe we didn’t control the game well enough. I wouldn’t say they were the better team, but they definitely controlled it. I’m just looking forward to playing them at home.

“The main positive to take from the game is our defensive organisation. We’ve been really organised this season and hard to break down.

“Burnley didn’t have many chances apart from the goal. That’s the key positive to take. Maybe we could have scored a couple of goals but it’s one of them where it all pans out over the course of a season and we’ll be looking to turn things around on Saturday.”