Speaking after our 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace, Eddie Howe reflected on a ‘difficult game’, gave credit to Nick Pope for his incredible save and reacted to his historic feat of going 15 games unbeaten in the league.
Despite dominating possession and having 16 efforts on goal, we struggled to create clear-cut chances and the head coach was quite clear on how ‘there are things to improve for us’.
In terms of our defence, there was rarely a mistake a made and Nick Pope registered his 12th clean sheet of the season thanks to a spectacular save in the 73rd minute, with Howe adding that he wasn’t surprised as he does that on a ‘regular basis’.
The result means Howe has become the first English manager this century to go unbeaten in 15 Premier League games, with the 45-year-old revealing how he ‘takes great pride’ in the stat – crediting the players for ‘consistently’ finding their top levels this season.
Heading into the semi-final on Tuesday, Newcastle should rightly be full of confidence, but, as Howe mentioned, will have to improve in some areas in the final third if we are to secure a positive result.
On the performance, Howe said: “Difficult game, but we played well. We got into dangerous positions, & created chances. We had moments in both halves. If there was a team that was going to win it, I thought it would be us, but we had to credit Nick Pope for a great save.
“The changing room is disappointed we didn’t win. There are things to improve for us, but we are seeing continued improvement. We are not firing as much as we’d like, but we are working on that.”
On our unbeaten run, Howe said: “We take great pride in it because it’s the hardest league in the world. If you’re off it slightly in a game, 5% or 10%, you usually get beaten. For the players to consistently hit the levels needed to win games, I think they deserve a lot of credit.”
On Pope’s save, Howe had this to say: “It was a great save. It was a really good strike but Nick’a got a really strong right hand but it’s not just getting a touch to it, it’s having the power to deflect it over the bar. It was game defining.”
