Eddie Howe, Manager of Newcastle United, looks on prior to the Premier League match between Brentford FC and Newcastle United FC at Brentford Community Stadium on December 07, 2024 in Brentford, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)Eddie Howe, Manager of Newcastle United, looks on prior to the Premier League match between Brentford FC and Newcastle United FC at Brentford Community Stadium on December 07, 2024 in Brentford, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Eddie Howe, Manager of Newcastle United, looks on prior to the Premier League match between Brentford FC and Newcastle United FC at Brentford Community Stadium on December 07, 2024 in Brentford, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Eddie Howe didn’t think the attitude of his Newcastle United players was ‘strong enough’ after suffering a 4-2 defeat at Brentford.
Newcastle twice came from behind in the first half with goals from Alexander Isak and Harvey Barnes cancelling out Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa’s goals. But the game got away from The Magpies in the second half with goals from Nathan Collins and Kevin Schade seeing Brentford secure three points.
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It was a first-ever Premier League win for Brentford against Newcastle, ending a run of five straight wins for Howe’s side against The Bees.
When asked about the attitude of his players, a dejected Howe responded: “Oh dear, I don't know.
“The attitude from the players was that there was a willingness to win and a willingness to fight but I don't think it was strong enough. I’ve got to be careful because goals always change emotions for people on the outside but also for the players who are playing.
“If you’re making those individual mistakes, you could go through each goal and look at a catalogue of errors really. That erodes confidence, it erodes the feeling but the fightback was really good to get it to 2-2 but we were never able to get our noses in front and the third goal we didn’t respond well to the third goal.”
Howe was pressed on why Newcastle failed to build on a promising first-half performance, in an attacking sense at least. And the Newcastle boss pointed to the adverse weather conditions and Storm Darragh as having a negative impact on his side’s performance.
“I'm not making excuses but I don't know whether the weather [had an impact] played a part because there was obviously a very strong wind today, I don't know if that's a coincidence,” Howe continued. “But we didn't attack as well in the second half as we did in the first half.
“I think today was a difficult game to come on [as a substitute] to because of the conditions and trying to pick up the speed of the game, naturally you're going to be cold.”
The defeat means it’s now two wins in 11 Premier League matches for Newcastle, who are now four games without a win since the November international break - conceding 10 goals in that time.
“We've got a lot of work to do in different areas but there is a very, very good team in there, I have no doubts about that,” Howe said in response to his side’s form. “But we haven't shown it consistently anywhere near enough for my liking or for everyone's liking connected with Newcastle.
“We've got a period of reflection, we've got a week between games, a period of work and we'll try and fight back.”
Next up for Newcastle is Leicester City at St James’ Park next Saturday (3pm kick-off) before they host Brentford in the Carabao Cup at St James’ Park looking to progress to the semi-final.
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