Kevin Nolan: “The first game was always going to be tough, all eyes were on us, not just in Newcastle but across the country, hoping for another slip-up. But I thought the lads handled that really well.
“If we play like that for the rest of the season I don’t think we will be far off.
“Ever since I’ve come to this club, I’ve realised a lot of people are out to get us. If there is anything strange or bad that happens at this club it seems to go everywhere.
“That doesn’t happen at other clubs, but it certainly happens here. It’s been tough, some of the things said and written have been hard to take.
“You read things about the lads you know aren’t true, but we have stuck together and tried to focus on what we can do on the pitch.
“We’ve shown with this display that we have a real togetherness and a respect for Chris (Hughton) and Colin (Calderwood).
“We also have so much respect for each other as a group of lads now. I think if we can keep that and stick together what ever happens to the club we won’t be far off at the end of the season.
“You’ve got to stay strong through adversity. Other people might have crumbled or tried to hide, but we haven’t done that. We’ve been stronger than that.
“We’re professional footballers and we accept we deserve a bit of flak when we don’t produce, but it’s about sticking together.
“The fans have stuck by us and they were absolutely brilliant against West Brom. The main thing is to get this club back into the Premier League where it belongs. How we do that doesn’t matter, we just need to do it.
“It was important to start well and this was always going to be a tough place to come. I don’t think many teams will come here and get a result. West Brom have been in and out of the Premier League for the last six years. They are no strangers as to what they need to do, but I think we produced a good performance.
“There are things we are going to have tighten up on and we will have to address that in the week. Overall it was a positive performance which we can only improve on.
“We’re fed up with hearing this, that and the other. You get sick of hearing this time it’s going to happen. We’ve just got to focus on ourselves and the team.
“When it happens it happens. It’s the same with the players, if they go they go, if they don’t they don’t. All we do know is that the ones who are here are going to give 110% for Newcastle United.”