Nerves, fatigue or psychology? What's behind Newcastle's late-goal issue?

[SNS]

Harvey Barnes has given his opinion on Newcastle United's tendency to concede late goals this season, after Eddie Howe's side let in an 88th-minute equaliser against Nottingham Forest last time out.

Elliot Anderson's goal was the 20th Newcastle United have conceded after the 75th-minute mark in the Premier League this season.

"It is disappointing," Barnes admitted on BBC Radio Newcastle. "There was a little bit of back and forth, and then we obviously got the goal and went ahead.

"We looked comfortable for a bit and we looked like we might get another one. We had a few chances - and then it [what followed] has just been the story of the season.

"We have been sinking in, conceding to pressure and ultimately conceding goals a little bit late in games. It is something we definitely haven't dealt with well enough when we go ahead in games.

"In the last 10 minutes or so, we seem to get a bit nervous. We seem to lose that confidence to go and get another goal, and ultimately we just try to defend the lead, which we haven't done well enough as a whole this year.

"There's maybe a little bit of fatigue at the end of games. When it happens once or twice, maybe the confidence drops and you automatically do it as a team.

"It's not an instruction. It's just something that seems to creep into our game a bit. It's something we have to stop doing."

Former Magpies defender John Anderson suggests it is a "psychological issue" that Howe's team are facing.

"It can be a mentality thing," Anderson explained. "When it happens so many times, it becomes psychological as well.

"You don't realise that you're dropping as deep as you're dropping, and giving as much space as you're giving, because you're trying to protect what you've got, especially when there is only one goal in it.