Isaac Hayden has dismissed claims that Newcastle rely on Jonjo Shelvey to win games, after the club fell to a 1-0 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday without the midfielder.
Brighton and Hove Albion beat QPR 3-0, and now find themselves two points clear of Newcastle at the top of the Championship standings.
But Hayden has made it clear that he doesn't believe the Magpies lost top spot solely because of the absence of Shelvey, who missed the game through suspension.
"People are always going to say "?if Jonjo was playing',"? said Hayden, quoted in the "?Shields Gazette.
"But at the end of the day it's a squad game. Jonjo doesn't win games by himself. There's still another 10 players out there that do the job and help the team.
"There's no getting away from it. Jonjo is a good player and he's been very important for us this season, but there's no reason to use that as an excuse that because he's not playing, we shouldn't be able to win games or dominate games."
Hayden admitted that the defeat - Newcastle's sixth of the season - was disappointing, but praised the performance of the deputising Jack Colback.
"Jack (Colback) has come in and he hasn't played in a while. I thought he ran his socks off today and tried his best.
"At the end of the day the only thing you can do as players is try your best. Everyone did that. We're not robots. We can't play 100% every single game Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday. It's impossible.
"We're disappointed, but, as the manager said after the game, I think we need to learn how to draw games rather than lose them."
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