KIERAN TRIPPIER has his eyes firmly on the Champions League after Newcastle United thrashed his former club, Tottenham, to strengthen their grip on a top-four spot.

The Magpies cruised to a 6-1 win at St James’ Park, with five of their goals coming in the opening 21 minutes, as they demolished a Spurs side who still harbour hopes of scraping into the Champions League themselves.

Newcastle are now six points clear of Tottenham, with a game in hand, and have also moved back above Manchester United, who did not play a league game at the weekend because of their involvement in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Newcastle’s last involvement in the Champions League came back in the 2002-03 season, but yesterday’s victory has put Eddie Howe’s side into an excellent position with seven more games to play, starting with Thursday’s trip to Everton.

“We shouldn’t be scared to say we want to play Champions League football,” said Trippier. “The games are running out, and this stadium would be bouncing with Champions League football.

“We let the supporters down last week (at Aston Villa), and it was about responding well. I thought we did that.”

READ MORE:

Trippier gave special praise to Alexander Isak, who justified his continued presence in the starting side ahead of Callum Wilson with two goals in the space of three minutes in the first half.

“I thought Alex Isak was unbelievable,” said the Magpies skipper. “It's healthy competition with Callum Wilson, nobody complains when they don't play.

“We got some goals early in the game, and we’ve shown throughout the season that we want to be on the front foot.”

Joe Willock was delighted with Newcastle’s sensational first-half showing, and praised the St James’ Park support for their input into the win.

“It’s amazing,” said Willock. “It’s the best stadium in the world and we have the best fans in the world. It was a terrific performance.”

Hugo Lloris conceded five first-half goals, and having been forced off at the interval because of a thigh injury, the Tottenham goalkeeper apologised to his club’s fans for his side’s abject display.

“It’s very embarrassing,” said Lloris. “We should apologise to the fans. We didn’t show a good face and we could not match the performance of the Newcastle players.

“We were late in all aspects of the game, and we completely missed the first part of the game. It is not even about tactics, we just could not fight and we were late. I think Newcastle just had a great performance, they were very aggressive and offensive everywhere they had the ball.”