Leicester City skipper Matt Oakley says missed chances are at the root of a slide in the team's current fortunes.

City go into tomorrow's Championship clash against Newcastle at the Walkers Stadium (5.20pm) without a win in four games – and three successive defeats on the road.

But Oakley believes that, on opportunities created, City should still be in the top six and in the FA Cup fifth round.

Instead, they lie in eighth spot ahead of the Magpies' clash and the Wembley dream is over for another season.

"You take your chances and you take the points," said the 32-year-old midfielder. "We had chances in the second-half of the league game at Swansea but didn't take them and it was the same at Barnsley.

"Dany N'Guessan has put a header wide, we've had one cleared on the penalty spot and Martyn Waghorn has been pulled back on a one-on-one."

The tide turned against City in the second-half as the Tykes secured their first home win over City since 1991.

"They put a bit of pressure on the referee towards the end of the first-half and he started giving a few iffy decisions," said Oakley.

City eventually succumbed to a 77th-minute set-piece engineered by former City favourite Iain Hume and scored by Argentinian Hugo Colace.

"We knew their threat would come from a set-piece and they punished us," said Oakley. "I thought we were going to hold out but they chucked everything at us and we couldn't get out of our half."

Oakley admitted the players were "down" after suffering a third straight defeat.

"Confidence goes a bit when the ball is not nestling in the back of the net, but when you score two or three goals the confidence comes back and everyone is buzzing with lots of options," said Oakley.

"We were also the better team at Cardiff in the FA Cup and really unlucky, but being beaten three times is not a disaster.

"We have to look at the positives and this is where the experienced players come in. We have been there before but the younger ones have not really seen this sort of thing before.

"Now we have to produce the goods against Newcastle and get back to winning ways."

City manager Nigel Pearson has talked about a "back to basics" approach to the Newcastle game and that may involve the re-instating of Steve Howard and Matty Fryatt as his frontline pairing.

"It is a strong bench and that is one of the things that can take us through the games," said Oakley.

"I can't pick the team so I'm not going to comment on the manager's selection but we have a lot of matches coming up – seven in February – and we need a strong squad to take us through.

"The Newcastle match is a great game to get us back on track and we need a good performance to get back into the top six."