Eddie Howe has reminded his Newcastle Untited players that we are not safe yet and “have a lot of work to do” after suffering a late defeat to Everton on Thursday night.
The scrappy affair at Goodison Park swung our way when Allan was sent off for the home side with 20 minutes remaining, however we failed to capitalise on the man advantage and ended up conceding in the 99th minute to hand the Toffees a 1-0 win.
Howe admits that the run of four games in 12 days has been tough on the players, but has been left frustrated by our flat second half display and the lack of quality shown in the final third.
The result leaves us nine points clear of the relegation zone, although that gap could shorten should Burnley take advantage of their two games in hand.
Speaking to Amazon Prime after the game, here’s what Howe had to say:
“It’s very disappointing.
“First half we were the better team. We didn’t really come out of the traps, I don’t know why that second half was just lacking in that bit of quality from our perspective.
“Even with ten men, we didn’t really show the dominance you’d expect with the extra man.
“I don’t think we deserved to lose the game, and from our perspective it was our game to win – but we didn’t take that opportunity.
“I think we said all along this was a very difficult run for us – a lot of away games in succession. Sometimes that is difficult.
“We suffered a late defeat at Chelsea, and a late defeat here. It is small margins.
“In both games we haven’t conceded a lot of chances against us, we have maybe just lacked the quality you would expect.
“We will have to (rest up and take stock). It is disappointing to do that off the back of two defeats but we have to accept that. It is what it is and we need to come back firing.
“We’re not safe, and we’ve got a lot of work to do.
“That’s why this really hurts for us.”
Co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi also shared his post-match thoughts on social media, saying the club will ‘take stock, re-focus and come back stronger’ after suffering back-to-back defeats for the first time in 2022:
