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John Carver insists he has his eye on the prize when it comes to winning the Newcastle United head coach role.

Despite six defeats in a row it is believed that Carver has the sympathy of his board after a torrid run of injuries and the club are yet to decide which direction they will go in this summer.

As reported in the Chronicle this week, Carver and ex-England manager Steve McClaren are the two leading contenders for the post.

When asked if he still believed he was in with a shout of being appointed next month on a full-time basis, Carver said: “Absolutely, why wouldn’t I? I am not a defeatist. I am a positive guy.

“I know what is going on and I know the situation, and so do the football club. So I am not going to write myself off. A lot of people might.

“It could be ex-players or pundits or whoever it is, that’s their opinion. They are entitled to do that but they don’t see the work we put in.

“They don’t see what I do on the training ground preparing the team, but people on the inside do.”

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Carver is likely to stay on at Newcastle no matter what happens next month.

Indeed, his contract will revert back to being assistant manager if he isn’t handed the head coach job full-time.

But Carver said: “I am not even thinking about that at the minute. I am the guy in charge and I would like to remain in charge.”

Carver is trying to build a positive working environment ahead of next season at the club’s Benton base.

And while results have been poor, he said: “I’d love to show you clips of our training sessions. You would actually think there was nothing wrong.

“We had a group of people in this week, they were sponsors, about 20 of them through the week. They couldn’t believe what they were watching. That’s how good it was.

“It’s no good being great trainers when we don’t perform at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. I’d rather have people performing on a Saturday and be poor on the training ground.”