Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer feels they cannot afford to lose to Leicester City this weekend.
Shearer believes there can be no excuses going into the battle with former Newcastle coach Nigel Pearson's newly promoted Foxes.
Shearer told the Evening Chronicle: "Nobody can make any excuses. The simple fact is we haven't been good enough. You can make whatever excuses you want. Injuries, too many games or confidence.
"Put all of that to one side, the simple fact of the matter is we just have not been good enough.
"We haven't been unlucky. We haven't been ravaged by injuries. We haven't been done by dodgy decisions. We just haven't been good enough.
"It's simple. That's the harsh reality of it.
"Things have to improve and they have to improve pretty quickly or we could find ourselves in a hole."
