Wanderers are temporarily down but they are not going down!

That was the defiant message from the Reebok dressing room today in the wake of three successive home defeats that have sent them tumbling from the top of the Premiership.

The pundits, who always said their early-season form was too good to last, are now predicting the "inevitable" slump but that is not how the players see it, despite having just crashed to the heaviest defeat of Sam Allardyce's two-year reign.

Shellshocked emergency keeper Bo Hansen admitted Wanderers got off lightly when they went down 4-0 to Newcastle but insisted: "We are still certain we are good enough to stay in the Premiership.

"We've proved that at the beginning of the season and on Saturday as well. We played really well in the first half and controlled the game and had the chances. And as long as we are creating chances, we will be okay.

"It's not so much the result, it's how we get on from here, how we respond. It's important we get some points and to do that we have to start scoring from the chances we are creating. I'm sure we will get some points if we can do that, especially at home where there is an amazing atmosphere. We have to look forward to the next game ... although it is a tough one away to Manchester United!"

Hansen, a goalkeeper in his early teens before he stopped growing, had to go between the posts for the last half hour after Jussi Jaaskelainen was sent off for handling the ball outside his area. Allardyce had gambled on not having a keeper on the subs' bench and the Dane, whose only previous experience at senior level had been on the training ground, had the deflating experience of watching Laurent Robert's free kick hit the back of the net before he had even had a feel of the ball.

Having trailed to a disputed Nolberto Solano goal three minutes from the end of the first half, Wanderers slumped from 1-0 to a scoreline that means it is now the players' turn to pay under the widely-publicised "forfeit scheme" that has brought smiles to so many faces in recent weeks.

"It was going to be difficult from then on," Hansen reflected on the sending off, "and it could easily have been six or seven.

"But 4-0 or 1-0 it makes no difference. We have lost and we are extremely disappointed because we've played some of the best football, especially in the first half hour. We dropped off a bit in the last 15 minutes of the first half.

"I don't know if it (Nolberto's goal) was offside or not but we came out in the first 15 minutes of the second half and played well again and created chances.

"We should have been at least 1-0 up though. I had a great chance from a great ball from Dean Holdsworth and it looked like a penalty to me when Deano was through."