BELEAGURED Graeme Souness last night reacted to the calls for him to be sacked from disillusioned Newcastle United supporters by insisting: "I can understand their frustrations."

Nearly 5,000 Magpies supporters made the trip to Lancashire in the hope of seeing the club they follow book a place in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup for only the sixth time in 45 years.

However, after a mortifying performance, Souness' men suffered an exit to a Wigan team fielding a number of players who have struggled to play regularly this season.

And Souness has demanded immediate improvements against Aston Villa, themselves knocked out at this stage by League One side Doncaster, on Saturday.

"I understand the fans' reactions. I can't complain about that. I'm a big boy.

"If I was a supporter out there and I had spent that sort of money getting here, I would not be happy watching a team play like we did," said Souness.

"We have to hold our hands up and admit we have let them down. I don't think my players thought it was going to be easy. I pointed out to the foreign lads that it was going to be a hard game and some didn't heed the warnings."

And Souness, who now has a worry over the fitness of Emre after he hobbled off with another hamstring injury, went as far as to suggest he has not felt as furious as he did last night during his time in charge at St James' Park.

He said: "I am the most angry I have been for a while. The one thing a player should guarantee when he crosses the line is 100 per cent - we didn't get that from these players."

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