Plymouth's Jamie Mackie is determined to go into Saturday's game at Newcastle with a positive attitude, despite the Pilgrims' lowly league position.

Mackie was part of the Argyle side that lost 1-0 to Watford in midweek, taking them bottom of the Championship table.

"We have to keep plugging away," Mackie told BBC Spotlight. "If you feel sorry for yourself, you'll carry on losing because big teams want to punish you.

"You can't dwell on the past and look back, because it's happened now."

Plymouth were denied a share of the spoils on Tuesday through an outstanding performance by Watford's goalkeeper Scott Loach, who made several crucial saves to keep the home side out.

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And Mackie acknowledged his team-mates were affected by the result, but sees Saturday's trip to Newcastle as the ideal stage to pick themselves back up.

He said: "After the [Watford] game there was a feeling of deflation in the dressing room, because of the amount of effort we put in and the amount of shots we had on target.

"But Newcastle is a massive game.

"It's the one that everyone wants to be involved in - playing on the big stages."

The pressure is going to be on Newcastle Jamie Mackie

And the 23-year-old added: "I love those big games, in big stadiums and in front of a lot of people.

"They're why I've worked hard to get to this level and I'll go there and hopefully I'll be playing up front and will get a couple of chances."

Despite Newcastle being the overwhelming favourites on Saturday, Mackie feels Plymouth are definitely in with a shout.

"The pressure is going to be on Newcastle," he said. "Blackpool have given us hope that we can go there and get something.

"But I can't say we're going there with no pressure, because we need a win so badly - it's not like we've got points on the board and it doesn't matter."

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