Kinnear makes Ashley plea

Kinnear: Demanding funds

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Joe Kinnear has pleaded with Newcastle owner Mike Ashley to loosen his purse strings so that he can bolster his injury-hit squad.

The Magpies squad is at breaking point with only 13 senior players fit and available for selection for Wednesday's FA Cup replay with Hull.

Kinnear is without 11 of his senior players and he feels they need to bring in new faces to give the squad fresh impetus in their battle to avoid relegation.

The former Wimbledon and Nottingham Forest has held emergency talks with Ashley as he fears that if no new players are signed this month they could be dragged into the bottom three.

Situation

"I've put the ball in Mike's court," Kinnear told The Sun.

"We need to act quickly. Mike's aware of the situation and if we don't get players in I will be disappointed.

"We could do without this FA Cup game, even though we want to stay in the competition.

"Two more injuries and who knows what sort of side I'll have for Blackburn on Saturday."

"That's why we have the meeting. It was called very hastily after I explained on Monday the difficult position we are in.

"The chairman [Llambias] was at home and I said, 'no, you need to come in. Come up tonight, we need to talk and get cracking'.

"In the position we're in, if you lose two or three games you can suddenly find yourself in the bottom three. I am not sure if they [the board] understand that already but I will make them aware of it."