Aaron Danks felt the game got away from Aston Villa in the second half during Saturday’s defeat against Newcastle United in the Premier League.
The visitors turned in a promising first 45 minutes on Tyneside but trailed at the break after Callum Wilson’s stoppage-time penalty.
Three further goals after the break condemned Villa to a loss.
He said: “I’m disappointed with the end result and disappointed for the supporters, who I thought were magnificent; they travelled a long way and backed us through the whole game.
“In terms of the game itself, I thought we started well and the first half was pretty even. We created as many good chances as they did.
“The penalty changes the game slightly and definitely changes your half-time team talk because you’re going to talk about ways of staying in the game and winning the second half.
“They were hurting us with some of their switches of play, so we tried to tweak one or two things and that opened up the middle of the pitch which led to some of the other goals.
“We knew at some point we were going to suffer a spell of momentum at St James’ Park, and in those moments when the game goes against you, you’ve got to find ways of staying in it. Unfortunately, the game got away from us at that time.”
The Magpies came into the game on a seven-match unbeaten run but found themselves stifled for large parts of the first half.
Wilson’s second of the afternoon kicked off the scoring in the second half as Newcastle got into their stride, with Villa unable to respond.
“The league is ruthless, and you have to take your chances when you have your moments,” Danks said.
“Unfortunately for us, it didn’t fall our way and we didn’t get to be clinical and ruthless. You see a club in Newcastle that are flying high and everything they hit goes in; they’re in a really good moment.
“We could have maybe taken our chances a bit better, but I thought the players applied themselves really well in that first half and it was a really good contest to begin with.”
