Eddie Howe thinks he and his Newcastle United players may end up looking back on our embarrassing defeat at Spurs as a “good thing.”
He believes that the 5-1 battering could refocus minds and remind his players that we are still in a relegation fight, believing the wake-up call may have come at the right time ahead of four crucial games that look set to decide whether we pull further clear of danger or get dragged back in.
Over the next three weeks, we face a trio of home games against Wolves, Leicester and Crystal Palace before travelling to Norwich on April 23rd, handing us a chance to secure our Premier League status.
Howe doesn’t believe the hammering at Tottenham will have damaged the player’s morale, but hopes the second half collapse and awful defensive display can ‘realign thoughts’ and get us ‘back to basics’ ahead of a string of huge games at St James’ Park:
“I don’t think it will (damage morale).
“In hindsight, we might look back on this as a good thing.
“It might realign our thoughts and get us back to the basics.
“We’re still in a huge fight to stay in the division. That’s six away games in seven. Now we return home and they’ll be massive games.
“After a second half like that you want to play again very quickly. I want to put the memory of this game away.”
The 44-year-old had this to say about the game itself, feeling we were executing our game plan well until a 15-minute collapse saw us take silly risks that played right into Tottenham’s hands:
“We were 1-0 up and executing a good plan.
“We were controlling them as best we could. We did the first part of the game well.
“The second goal is the key thing. It’s what we didn’t need to do. We chased the game in a way you can’t against this time of team.
“We took risks and didn’t execute it well enough. Against these teams you have to get every aspect of your game right.
“In the second half we didn’t They have players who can hurt you. Some of their football will be the highest level. It’s something we’ll have to learn from.”
