REUTERS – Newcastle United are too good a team to be struggling against relegation for the remainder of the Premier League season, under-fire manager Steve McClaren has said.

Despite their impressive performance in last weekend’s 2-0 Premier League win against Liverpool at St James’ Park, the Magpies remain third from bottom and travel to Tottenham Hotspur, who are on a 14-game unbeaten run, on Sunday.

“I think this team is capable of so much more. That’s the frustrating thing. Finishing fourth bottom isn’t our mindset,” McClaren told British media.

“Our position is not good but we have to fight and scrap to get out of it and climb the league. We’re not out of the woods yet. It’s going to get very competitive down there and we need to show we can climb the table.”

The former England manager was under intense scrutiny after damaging losses to Leicester City and Crystal Palace in the league. Last weekend’s win over Liverpool came as relief but the McClaren denied fearing for his job.

“How we’d performed in the previous two games was more worrying than my position. I can’t control my position, I can’t do anything about it,” McClaren said.

“I just need to get this team winning. My total focus was: ‘What the hell can we do to get a result?'”

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)