SAM Allardyce could not hide the disappointment that came from his side's Jekyll and Hyde performance at St James's Park on Sunday.

After falling behind to Lee Bowyer's early goal and losing defender Nicky Hunt with a dislocated shoulder, Wanderers finished the half on a high and looking marginally the better side after Stelios had fired in the equaliser.

Yet to Allardyce's dismay, it all went wrong after the break.

"We had done so well in the first half and I expected us to come out in the second half and play like that again," he said. "But we didn't, and lost deservedly in the end by encouraging Newcastle to do what they are good at, and that's putting together attack, after attack, after attack.

"That was the last thing I expected after we had created so much ourselves. Unfortunately, the players went out in the second half and forgot to do what they had done earlier, and that was win the battle to keep possession, then pass your way up the pitch in the hope they might crack.

"And that's what we did when we came back from 1-0 down with what was an excellent goal."

"I'm hugely disappointed in the result, because we've come so far and we're getting so near to it being the best season we've ever had. But we've let ourselves down with that second half performance.

"The only way I can explain what happened is that we lost the discipline to win a game of football.

"First you have to stop the opposition playing, but I think because they had done so well in the first half, the players thought it was just going to happen again. The only reason we were so good in the first half is that we made it happen, but in the second we didn't and we just allowed Newcastle to play and put pressure on us by playing off the front two quickly, winning the knock downs and spreading it wide.

"We only gave two free kicks away in the last third of the pitch in the first half, but we gave 17 away in the second half. That shows you the wrong things we were doing and with the opposition on top of you like that, you know you are going to crack, and eventually we did."

"I didn't think Hierro should have been sent off for his foul on Dyer. We had enough covering players behind the ball, the only concern for me was whether it was a penalty, but I think the challenge was outside the box. We managed to recover from that because the resulting free kick by Robert was a very good one, and I thought that escape might just have been the wake-up call we needed. But unfortunately it wasn't.

"The second half performance was way below our standard. We've had setbacks this season, though, but we've come back and we've showed what we we are made of.

"Hopefully we can get back to the first half performance next week and make sure it lasts for 90 minutes and not just 45."

And on a final note, Allardyce was asked if he had any regrets at not taking up the Newcastle management offer before Souness got the job.

"It's a fantastic place and the supporters are fantastic, but I made that decision a long time ago, and I've no thoughts about it now"