NEWCASTLE have been reduced to 10 men just NINE minutes into their relegation six-pointer against Norwich after Ciaran Clark pulled down Teemu Pukki.

The Magpies defender cleared the ball straight into the chest of the Canaries striker and he knocked the ball in front of him with a clear path to goal.

But Clark then cynically chose to pull Pukki down and was correctly shown a red card by Andy Madley.

Clark's ninth-minute red card is the second-earliest red card a Newcastle player has been shown in a Premier League match after Nikolaos Dabizas' fourth minute sending off against Blackburn in October 2002.

The red card puts Eddie Howe's side in a perilous position as they search for their first Premier League win of the season.

Newcastle currently sit bottom of the Prem but would move above Norwich with a victory at St James' Park.

Howe, who takes over just one month after Newcastle's £300million takeover by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, is hoping to attract players in January to help with their relegation fight.

“I’ve heard from everyone how nice the area is to live in.," he said. "We’ll have no problem attracting players to Newcastle for a whole host of reasons. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.

“What is an issue is our league position in attracting players in January.

“It’s very difficult to make any promises in the sense that we will definitely spend money and sign players.

“You have to attract players, they have to want to come and they have to be the right players to improve the squad.

“That is why January is an incredibly difficult window to recruit players in, especially when your league position is difficult.

“I can’t make any promises on that but I can promise that the people above me, the owners, will support the team and me in trying to achieve what we need.

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“But we can’t focus on that yet.

"We are going to have the group of players we have until January – we need to get more out of them and help them in every way we can.

“I still believe we have the players we need to get results.”

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