It was a monumental Wednesday night for Newcastle United as we grabbed our first three points of this season’s Champions League with a resounding 4-0 away win against Union Saint-Gilloise.

After a sluggish start to the season, a bounce back was needed from Eddie Howe and the team from Sunday’s loss against Arsenal, and that’s certainly what we got in Brussels.

Goals from Nick Woltemade and Harvey Barnes came either side of a brace of Anthony Gordon penalties as we recorded our biggest away win in the competition proper.

Here’s what Howe had to say after an eventful evening,

Howe on a huge UCL win

It’s our first away win in the competition since 2003, and it’s fair to say we fully deserved all three points.

On paper, the trip to face the Belgian champions, who were unbeaten in all competitions heading into the game, was a real banana skin, especially after we’d failed to score in each of our previous three away games this season.

Howe was delighted with our display and the way we settled after taking the lead, feeling it was a “big response” to Sunday’s late defeat to Arsenal:

“Travelling out here, it’s what we would have wanted especially after the Arsenal ending, it was a big response from the players.”

“I thought it was a really good display today, always gonna be a tough game. But I think as soon as we got that first goal, it settled us down and we played really well.”

“Hopefully it prepares us for the Premier League because we’ve been looking for a performance like that where it looks like we could score at any moment.

“It wasn’t a perfect performance, there’s things we could improve, it’s a big step in the right direction.”

Over 90 minutes, this was probably our best performance of the season so far, and Howe credits that the team’s mentality and desire to play attacking football above all else.

“I always insist we’re an aggressive football team: I don’t want us to play negative football, I don’t want us to sometimes play too much in our build-up phase that doesn’t bring out the best in us.

“We’ve got dynamic players, I want to get them the ball as early as possible.”

Boss urges Toon stars to believe

Howe was also asked if this performance will leave his players feeling worthy of a place in Europe’s elite competition, but the boss feels that belief should definitely exist based on our quality and squad depth.

“They should believe. There is no reason why we can’t win games at this level, home and away. We have got the players and the squad to do that.

“Maybe you have to do it to believe it yourself but I’m already there. I know that we can.”

“It’s an important stage in the Champions League because we have to start well. These competitions the demands are so high, so if we are slow starters we could leave ourselves too much to do.

“So I certainly leave here in a lot healthier, positive frame of mind. I’m looking forward to the next game.”

Howe on a strong display at both ends

Wednesday night marked the first time that Anthony Gordon, Anthony Elanga and Nick Woltemade started a game together, and if their performance here was a sign of things to come, Howe may have his go-to front three until Yoane Wissa returns from injury.

Goals from Woltemade and Gordon were accompanied with a player of the match-worth performance from Elanga, but the boss was also full of praise for a fourth-straight clean sheet away from home:

“There was certainly some good bits from them today. I thought we attacked well today, I thought we defended well today.

“Any time you get a clean sheet in the Champions League away from home is a good statement to make.”

On first choice penalty takers

Anthony Gordon netted his second and third goals of his UCL campaign, with both goals coming from the penalty spot.

With Alexander Isak having been the previous first choice option, there had been a small debate as to who Howe would pick to replace him: Gordon had taken pens previously in the Swede’s absence last season, though the likes of Fabian Schar and Bruno Guimaraes could certainly make a case.

Howe clarified his decision and Gordon’s role as penalty taker, saying:

“Anthony has been practising them a lot. He’s been working very hard on his routine.”

“You can see that he’s very focused and I was really pleased with how he took the two penalties.

“I think when you see someone as dedicated as he’s been towards that, then I had no hesitation in giving him that role.”

Woltemade wanted to take the second spot kick, but Howe could only commend the German’s eagerness and hunger to score, feeling this is a good sign for a striker:

“I love that! The best strikers I’ve seen and worked with want to score.”

“Even if there is a directive, they don’t care. They want to score and they want that responsibility because that’s what they live to do. I’ve got no issue with that at all.”