Newcastle Manager Eddie Howe Reflects on Performance, Regrets Team’s Late-Game Approach

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe, in an interview with Sky Sports, commented, “I don’t think anything takes me by surprise in the Premier League. We know every team has qualities.” Howe asserted that his team “were the dominant team at half-time” and suggested the match’s trajectory “would have been very different if we had equalised before the end of first half.” He expressed satisfaction with the initial 60 minutes, despite the team being 2-0 down, stating, “I’m pretty pleased with the first 60 minutes albeit we were losing the game 2-0. We opened them up and had chances to score. Up to that point I was pretty pleased,” but admitted he “didn’t enjoy” the final 30 minutes. Howe attributed this to the team having “tried a bit too hard to score,” adding, “We’ll rue that when we watch the game back.” The manager acknowledged that “We know we made individual mistakes for both goals,” describing the situation as “disappointing from our perspective” and “Very uncharacteristic from us because we’ve defended well in recent weeks.” Howe noted that by the end of the match, players were “out of position,” leading him to conclude, “I didn’t like the way we looked at the end.” He reiterated his belief that “up until that 60-minute mark I thought we were the dominant team.” Addressing contentious decisions, Howe described Callum’s “non-penalty” incident as “a tight call” that he would “need to see it again.” He also commented that “The offside goal looked tight,” expressing an expectation that “it would be a longer review and hopefully drop in our favour.” Regarding the injuries sustained by Joe Willock and Bruno Guimaraes, Howe stated, “We’ll wait and see. Hopefully nothing too serious.”