(Image: Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle)
Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe stood up to the fierce criticism that came his way in the aftermath of the clash with Crystal Palace - and has insisted he will not change his principles.
After Howe endured some scathing criticism and some of United's fanzines strengthened their editorials, the head coach said he would not alter his tactical viewpoint despite failing to produce a shot on target at Selhurst Park and struggling to trouble West Ham in the game prior.
When asked by Chronicle Live whether it was time to "drop" the pursuit of entertainment, Howe, speaking at his pre-match press conference, said: "No. No for me attacking is fundamental. It is your aim of the game. You are giving your players a purpose.
"We will always going to attack. I make no apologies for that. I would rather not be in a job than not fulfil that promise to the supporters. We want to entertain ultimately.
"We want to play attacking football that ultimately the fans want to see. I know we are not delivering that at the moment and that is a frustration, we are not going to drop that we just have to become better than that."
Howe insisted that his team have been a threat in recent games and pointed to the first hour against West Ham.
He said: "I think when you go back to the last two games we've had - West Ham we really created a lot of chances, especially in that first 60 minutes. And I thought we looked like a really good team but we didn't take them.
"Palace was different. What I said after the game; once we'd scored and we were leading the game, we've done our job to that point. "As much as we still want to score, we want to go 2-0 up, the game had never been a free flowing performance from us.
"And if we'd won the game 1-0, we'd have said that was a brilliant sort of away day for us where we didn't play well but we got a great win."
Looking back on the way the game panned out, with Daniel Munoz grabbing an equaliser, Howe said: "We didn't defend the cross well enough and then the whole focus comes back on sort of the performance with the ball. Our attacking output was very low and we're not going to deny that or hide that."
Speaking about the challenge of Liverpool coming to St James' Park, Howe said: "I think we're always confident at home. I think regardless of the opponent, we have to be our best selves and we have to learn lessons from previous games and find ways to evolve and improve."