Howe reacts to 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest – Watch Amazon Prime interview here

Eddie Howe has bemoaned our inability to cope with Nottingham Forest on the counter-attack following a 3-1 defeat at St James’ Park, feeling their goal with half-time also “impacted us more than it should have done.”

The boss insists we were comfortably the better side in the first half and believes the game may have swung just before the break, where a big chance for Miguel Almiron ended with a Chris Wood goal just as we looked to go 2-0 up.

That said, he accepts our decision making wasn’t good enough and criticised our poor defending for all three Forest goals, saying we didn’t cope with the half-time setback, never got to grips with their pace in transition and were made to pay once again.

Howe feels there’s a “commination of things” that are “hurting us” at the minute, admitting that we’ve barely trained in “months” due to games every three days and must bounce back after seven defeats in our last eight.

Here’s what he told Amazon after the defeat:

“It was a difficult afternoon. We didn’t deal with the transitions very well. In that first half, we could have made it 2-0 but we were made to pay for it. Our decision making was off today”

“I don’t think there’s one reason (behind our recent blip). I think it’s a whole combination of things as to why we’ve not been at our best.

“I don’t think we were far away today [against Forest]. We need to train properly for perhaps the first time in months. If a team not playing at their best, you have to self-reflect. We don’t have more pressure than usual.”