NEWCASTLE'S players held a full and frank "inquest" into Saturday's humiliating 4-1 home defeat by Portsmouth yesterday morning, and goalkeeper Steve Harper claims the clear-the-air talks have increased the squad's determination to make amends in this weekend's Tyne-Wear derby with Sunderland.

Allardyce has bemoaned his side's inability to master "the basics"

against Pompey, and the final three of Portsmouth's goals stemmed from routine defensive errors.

Newcastle's new-look defence crumbled inside the opening 15 minutes - Brazilian centre-half Claudio Cacapa was substituted shortly afterwards - and goalscorer Benjani Mwaruwari claimed he had not experienced such a whirlwind opening since his schoolboy days.

Schoolboy errors' certainly cost the Magpies dear, but if the likes of Cacapa, Steven Taylor and Habib Beye keep their place at the Stadium of Light, Harper is confident yesterday's de-briefing session will guarantee they do not make the same mistakes again.

"We were in on Sunday for a bit of a recovery situation and (yesterday's) meeting needed to happen,"

he added. "The video wasn't great viewing, but we needed to see it.

"We've had a look at what happened and identified the things to be worked on. It was as constructive as it could be.

"Saturday wasn't great, but it's history now. We've dealt with it and put it to bed.

"We'll go into training and turn our attention towards building to a massive game on Saturday."

Allardyce will oversee a number of specialist defensive sessions in the next four days, but the Magpies manager could be forgiven for taking things easy when it comes to organising Harper's preparation.

With Given's groin injury certain to keep him on the sidelines this weekend, and third-choice goalkeeper Tim Krul on loan at Scottish Premier League side Falkirk, Harper and 19-year-old Fraser Forster are the only fit shot-stoppers on Newcastle's books.

"There's only myself and Fraser fit at the moment," confirmed Harper.

"There's a reserve game (this evening), and I'm not sure whether Fraser will be involved.

Tim Krul is out on loan, and even the two younger lads we've got are injured.

"I'm sure they'd have to go down the emergency route if anything was to happen to me.

Having said that, Fraser's improvement has been fantastic and if the worst was to happen, I'm sure he'd be in there and would be capable of handling it."

Sam Allardyce made each and every member of his side sit through a recording of last weekend's St James' Park slaughter before they began training yesterday morning.

The video nasty was followed by a candid analysis session in which the Magpies manager dissected the multiple defensive mistakes that contributed to Newcastle's worst Premier League home defeat since April 2005.

It was hardly a pleasant two hours, but Harper, who was returning to the side in place of the injured Shay Given, feels the experience could prove cathartic ahead of one of the biggest games of the campaign.

"What went wrong? I wish I knew," said the shot-stopper.

"But we looked at the video and had a bit of an inquest. It was no fun at all, but we needed to do it. We had a constructive meeting and looked at what went wrong.

"We felt we had to analyse what happened in those eleven minutes.

"By 12 minutes past three, it was almost like a bomb had gone off.

"It was one of those days when everything that could have gone wrong, did. Thankfully, those days are few and far between though, and we have a great chance to put things right on Saturday."