Newcastle United senior players have rallied the squad after the dismissal of Chris Hughton.
Danny Simpson said United senior men Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton and Alan Smith assembled the squad in the wake of Chris Hughton's unpopular sacking and told them there were "no excuses" for a repeat of the 2008 collapse that followed Kevin Keegan's resignation.
"I think it's a good thing to have players like that who are willing to stand up and show a bit of pride in the shirt," Simpson told the Sunday Sun.
"What happened after Chris was sacked showed that. We sat round as a group and some of the senior players like Kevin, Joey, Alan and Steve (Harper) said that we have to get on with things. We can't let this ruin our season.
"That was the message that they gave out. It could have been very easy to go out and not perform and blame it on other people and use it as an excuse for why we had lost.
"But this group of players don't use excuses - simple as that. They got up and reminded the younger players of that and I think you saw that in our response."
