Cheick Tiote has urged Newcastle to repeat their show of unity in the 0-0 draw at West Ham on Saturday when they face QPR next weekend.
A share of the spoils at Upton Park on most occasions would be considered a good result for a team fighting for survival towards the bottom of the Barclays Premier League. But with fellow strugglers Wigan and Aston Villa both picking up away wins, Alan Pardew's side are now just three points above the drop zone.
"We need to win," he said. "Before the (West Ham) game we knew we had to win or take one point, but we could not lose. We have one point and that's important."
He added: "Everyone was together and we played as a team. We were more compact and that's important. On Sunday we've got to do the same and hopefully we can take the three points."
Questions of cliques among the Newcastle squad surfaced after an abject performance in a 6-0 thrashing at home by Liverpool last weekend.
The team were particularly poor defensively but Tiote felt the return to fitness of captain Fabricio Coloccini, playing his first game since February 24, had the desired effect.
"I think it helped us because we know Coloccini's a good player with a lot of experience," he said.
"He played well today and I'm happy to see him back because we're going to need him for the next two games. I think we deserved more than the one point because, when you see the game, I felt we wanted it more than West Ham.
"We missed some chances and we didn't score the goal we needed but we need to take the positives and think about the next game."
Source: PA
