Eddie Howe on positives and negatives from Newcastle 2-1 Burnley

It’s 10 points from our last 12 in the Premier League, as goals from Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon helped us win 2-1 at home to Burnley.

We had to weather an early storm from the visitors, before Bruno scored directly from a corner kick to make it 1-0 just after the half-hour mark. A red card was then followed by a handball in the Burnley box during added time, seeing us win a penalty that Gordon converted to make it 2-0.

Burnley did get a penalty of their own in stoppage time, which Zian Flemming scored despite Aaron Ramsdale diving the right way. We managed to survive this late scare however, and build some momentum ahead of two huge games coming next week.

Here’s what Eddie Howe had to say after today’s game, discussing a vital win, our sluggish start and a "bizarre end" to a tough game, despite our man advantage.

On today’s performance

Burnley, despite being in the relegation zone, were always going to be a tricky customer. Despite this, a win today was both imperative and expected, though Howe feels we definitely could have performed better than we did.

“It was a bizarre ending because we looked like we were home at 2-0. One goal can always change things and then the penalty happens. The extra man advantage then goes out of the window and you have to see that bit out.

“It was a sluggish start. Bruno got us a goal from a corner, we went 2-0 up and I was hoping for a really vibrant second half but it didn't happen.

“We didn't do well in tight areas, we didn't do enough in the second half to break them down. Credit to Burnley and how they defended.

“It's 10 points out of 12. Let's try and be positive rather than negative. Although it was a tough game today, I always thought it was going to be, in the sense that Burnley, very well organised, made it difficult for us. It wasn't our finest performance, so we're a long way short of that really, but we got the job done.”

On tense ending to today’s game

Despite leading 2-0 at the beginning of stoppage time, we almost conceded an equaliser with the last kick of the game, which would have been the latest instance of us failing to effectively see out games.

And Howe has voiced his displeasure with the fact we almost let the lead slip:

“That was an uncomfortable ending for us. Certainly a lot to learn and the beauty is we're learning with a victory behind us rather than a negative result.

“So we have to improve our management of games at the latter stages and today that nearly cost us.”

On preparing for Leverkusen and Sunderland

Up next for us are perhaps our biggest games of the season so far: first we travel to Germany to play Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, where a win will see us all-but-officially confirm our place in at least the play-offs.

And then it’s the first league Tyne-Wear in close to a decade, where a win would put us back above Sunderland in the league table, and Howe recognises the gravity of both fixtures and has called upon the team to deliver.

“We've got a lot of massive games on the horizon. We now go back to the Champions League.

"There are big incentives for us to do well in this game. Sunderland on the horizon will be a massive game.”