Christian's Disappointment

Christian Dailly admits that the team "lost the shape" against Newcastle in the 4-0 defeat on Monday night.

Christian, who once more partnered Tomas Repka at the heart of the defence, admits of the loss: "It was disappointing because we really did very well for an hour, then we conceded a goal from a set piece and ended up going a little bit.

"It is difficult because we put in so much effort and it is hard to pinpoint certain things.

"But as a team we lost our shape a little bit and that is something we have got to work on."

Glenn Roeder had worked hard last season to minimise goals conceded from set plays, and, following the 5-4 defeat at Reading in pre-season, set aside more time to work on defending them.

"We have worked really hard to try and combat it and it is annoying to concede another goal from a set piece," says Christian.

"It is frustrating because we had contained them and the crowd had gone really quiet.

"Then we are on the back foot a little bit, and it seemed we had to defend from the edge of our box - we couldn't keep the ball as well as we wanted to.

"We invited them onto us and I think that just wore us down eventually - it is very disappointing."

Christian will not be able to work at Chadwell Heath until later in the week as he is on Scotland duty - a disruption Glenn Roeder could do without after such a tough opener to the season.

While the technicality of being bottom of the league after one game may not be the major concern, what is highlighted is that the defeat had echoes of last season's early season drubbings at Everton and Blackburn, and Glenn would have preferred, naturally, to have his entire squad to work with this week.

Christian insists, however, that the players will be in a positive frame of mind come the weekend visit of Arsenal, and he adds: "We have just got to get on with it - everyone is working hard, we need everyone behind us and hopefully we can have a good game against Arsenal on Saturday."