Keith Gillespie has told Football FanCast that Newcastle United’s squad should be ashamed of their performance against Brighton & Hove Albion before the international break.

Steve Bruce’s side are marooned in relegation trouble and liE 17th in the table, just two points clear of Fulham.

Against Brighton, they had an opportunity to climb the table, as they took on a team that are only one place above them in the league.

But Gillespie’s former side were thumped 3-0, with goals from Leandro Trossard, Danny Welbeck and Neal Maupay proving decisive.

Gillespie believes there are deep-rooted problems at the club, from the ownership to the manager, but he was disgusted with the performance of the players.

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, he claimed the display was “shocking”, and insisted that the club were fortunate there were no away fans at the AMEX to witness it.

He said: “Certainly the players need to go out and produce better performances than they did against Brighton because it just felt as if they’d just given up the fight. There was no fight there.

“Especially when you’re playing against a club who is in and around you. It’s a six-pointer, really. To put in that type of performance was absolutely shocking and you can imagine fans travelling to an away game, when we did have fans, how embarrassed they should have been to play that type of football in front of the fans.”

Gillespie accepts that he is in a privileged position as a former player, but he claims that the squad should expect to be criticised by pundits, and has urged them to hit back and prove they can stay up.

He added: “It’s easy for me being an ex-player to come out and have a go at players but if I was a player playing in that current Newcastle side, and performances were what they are, I’d expect people to be coming out and having a go.

“I’d be expecting there to be a reaction, a reaction where look, we’re going to roll our sleeves up, we’re going to work our socks off for these last nine games and make sure that we stay in the Premier League.”

Newcastle have a remarkably tough run-in and will play Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Leicester City and Manchester City before the season is out.