The first rule of fight club is ...?

De Jong and his team-mates take on Crystal Palace tomorrow in desperate need of a win.

Newcastle were convincingly beaten by Leicester City last weekend.

De Jong is pushing for his first Premier League start of the season at Selhurst Park, having had a 90-minute run-out for the club’s Under-21s on Monday.

And the forward has revealed the quality he feels Newcastle lacked most against Leicester.

“We need to be more consistent – we need to put up more of a fight,” said de Jong.

“I think we had a couple of performances that were pretty good. Against Sunderland, we played a good game until the red card.

“The Bournemouth game wasn’t a good game, but we defended quite well in our own box.

“Before that, there were a couple of games that we can build on.

“Sometimes we haven’t shown what we can do, and that’s disappointing. We know it’s possible, but we need to show it every game.”

United head coach Steve McClaren talked before the game of the importance of counter-attacking, but his team gifted possession tine and again against Leicester.

And de Jong said: “I think we lost the ball where we could have created something.

“When we got the ball from them we lost it too easily. We were sloppy, especially on transition.”

De Jong joined Newcastle when Palace manager Alan Pardew was in charge at St James’s Park.

“I never really played under Pardew,” said the 26-year-old. “I think he’s a good manager and I think we have a good manager as well.”