Newcastle assistant head coach Paul Simpson is warning the Magpies they will have to put in a massive shift to get the better of Norwich City.

Steve McClaren's squad is yet to win a Premier League game this season, but ahead of Sunday's televised home test against Alex Neil's visitors, Simpson has made it clear they will have to match the Canaries' work-ethic to try and end that wretched run.

'They (Norwich) are a very good football side, I've got to say that to start with,' he said. 'They've got some match winners in there, some good players – but we've got to make sure we're on our game as well. This is a side that's come into the Premier League, they've carried on with the momentum of getting promotion and they've still got that enthusiasm about them. It's up to us to knock that enthusiasm out of them. We've got to go and work unbelievably hard – harder than we've worked for seasons – we've got to go and do that starting against Norwich.

'We've got to go and close people down, we've got to play football, we've got to be attacking, create opportunities, take our opportunities and not worry about what Norwich are going to do and really focus on ourselves and be positive about it.'

Dutch international Daryl Janmaat and Jack Colback are poised to return to a Newcastle squad still reeling from the season-ending injury to keeper Tim Krul topping a lengthy injury list.

'It's been a horrible time for them (the medical staff) in there – they'll be sick of the sight of some of the faces,' Simpson told his club's official site. 'Obviously as some come out of the room then others go in (like) in Tim's case. We're asking the medical department to work overtime but they're pulling out all the stops trying to get all the lads out. We'll keep them working this week and hopefully they can perform their magic.'