Eddie Howe believes the criticism that’s come his way since our 5-1 defeat to Spurs was fully deserved, saying it’s fueled him and his players to deliver a much needed response at St James’ Park tomorrow.
After three straight defeats for NUFC was followed by Burnley’s huge win over Everton last night, Howe has also shared his thoughts on the relegation battle – insisting we have never been out of the running.
Burnley’s win reduced the gap between ourselves and the bottom three to seven points, but the NUFC boss plans to use that result and last Sunday’s hammering as extra motivation ahead of a potentially season-defining clash with Wolves on Friday night.
Howe believes it is a big chance to regain momentum and has urged everyone inside St James’ Park to pull together in a game that could see us take a huge step towards securing our Premier League status.
Here’s what he had to say earlier today, starting with his response to criticism after that second half collapse at Spurs:
“There should be criticism for our second-half performance.
“I was very critical of it and the players were disappointed.
“I do feel we’ve made great strides in recent months but you’re always accountable to your recent performances so we have to respond now.
“We’re looking forward to getting the opportunity to do it.”
Howe then had this to say when asked how Burnley’s 3-2 win last night impacts the relegation battle:
“I’m aware of the results, but we can’t control them.
“We’ve never been in anything other than a relegation battle.
“Until we get the points we need, that’s always going to be the case.
“We know how important momentum is and we need to wrestle that back after three games without winning.
“That’s going to be down to our attitude and approach to this game and we’re emphasising the importance of it to the players.
“We really need that feeling in the ground that this is a massive, massive game – and that needs to be reflected by everyone.“
Last but not least, Howe explained how the humiliating defeat at Tottenham could actually help us moving forward:
“I think last week was a tough experience but hopefully it might be a good thing when we look back.
“We can realign our thought process and organisation because it went missing in the second half. It wasn’t pretty to watch.
“We aren’t happy with ourselves and we set high standards of ourselves. We have evaluated what went wrong and put it right.
“That is what we are in the process of doing.”
