Joey Barton praises his Newcastle team-mates for stepping up and steering club away from danger

Joey Barton, Newcastle United (Getty Images)

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Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton believes the effort of his team-mates explains why the club has avoided being dragged into a relegation scrap this season.

Newcastle have impressed this campaign and are in 11th spot in the Premier League, and Barton has praised the work of his team-mates.

“The most important thing for me was to achieve Premier League survival with a group of players at Newcastle United,” Barton told Sky Sports.

“Whether that was with myself playing well or Kevin Nolan, or Shola Ameobi, whoever it’s been the lads have been there all through the season, and when myself or certain other individuals have been off the boil there’s been a team group to fall back and catch us.

“Individuals win nothing and achieve nothing and thankfully we’ve got a good squad mentality and a good rapport between ourselves and we’ve been able to propel ourselves up the table in the last few months.”

The former Manchester City man has impressed on the pitch this season but has moved to downplay comments he reportedly made in an interview where he was quoted as saying that he was England’s best midfielder.

“I’ve been quoted in French magazines as saying what I felt about it, which was totally blown out of proportion, but it is what it is really,” he said.