Eddie Howe manager of Newcastle United
Eddie Howe manager of Newcastle United
Eddie Howe has spoken of his pride after Newcastle United picked up a dramatic and hard fought point against Liverpool.
It was a far cry from the disappointing score draw at Crystal Palace just days earlier but Newcastle were much more of an attacking threat as they served up 17 goal attempts and after firing in no shots on target at Selhurst Park, this time they warmed the keeper's hands half a dozen times and netted three goals thanks to Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Fabian Schar in a pulsating 3-3.
Howe said afterwards: "I am really proud. We went toe-to-toe and matched them, it's our best of the season. Our gameplan was to be ourselves which is difficult against a team like Liverpool, it's a delicate balance. Alexander Isak was really good tonight, if we get our players firing we are some team."
On a crazy night Newcastle led twice and then had to force an equaliser in the 89th minute. On the game, Howe reflected: "Generally I was very pleased with the performance, we were much better attacking and we had really good energy.
"It was a really good quality performance against probably the best team we have played against this season. It was a big jump forward for us.
"I was disappointed with the goals we conceded but I don't think that should overtake my general feeling. That is much more like us. If we can hit those levels consistently we are going to win a lot of games."
Howe now hopes that Newcastle can take that performance forward to Brentford on Saturday and knows his team will soon climb the table if they can reproduce that in clashes against the teams outside the top six.
He said: "That was much better from us. You know with the quality Liverpool have off the bench we could have an issue and that's what happened. But our mental quality came to the fore and we got the equaliser. We had chances to make it 2-0, we scored three goals and looked dynamic and energetic."