Newcastle United go into Wednesday night’s huge Carabao Cup showdown with Brentford off the back of a relative high.
Indeed, Eddie Howe’s side beat Leicester 4-0 in the Premier League on Saturday in a morale-boosting display for Newcastle.
Just days after the Newcastle United manager publicly questioned his players for their attitude having lost to the Bees, the Magpies turned on the style.
The hosts went into half-time a goal to the good after Jacob Murphy’s strike – one he celebrated by seemingly venting some of his anger – on the half hour mark.
Howe’s team had missed some great chances before and after that and should have been out of sight before the interval.
Quick-fire goals from Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak after the break, however, put Newcastle in cruise control before Murphy struck again an hour into proceedings.
It was a good day on Tyneside, albeit the quality of the opposition obviously has to be taken into account.
Still, Newcastle can only beat what’s put in front of them and they’ve made hard work of that for much of the campaign. To eventually sail to a relatively routine victory at least lifted some of the pressure before Wednesday’s massive quarter-final.
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There were scenes of celebration towards the end of the game, with the fans chanting Howe’s name despite a recent rather poor run of results.
After the game, it seems sporting director Paul Mitchell got involved.
Newcastle United Sporting Director Paul Mitchell during the Newcastle United Pre Season Training Camp at the Adidas HomeGroup Training Facilities o...
Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images
What Paul Mitchell did after Newcastle thrashed Leicester
According to The Chronicle, the sporting director and performance director James Bunce both went down to the dressing room to join in the celebrations with staff.
Unlike Bunce, however, Mitchell did not get involved in the post-match team photo.
Much has been made about the relationship between Howe and Mitchell but any tension has recently been played down.
And the fact he’s now choosing to put himself in and around Eddie Howe and the boys after a win is significant, with any issues and avoidance put to bed.
Paul Mitchell loves how Newcastle play under Eddie Howe
Interestingly, Mitchell was recently asked about what he thought of Newcastle’s style of play under Howe.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ex-Monaco chief gave a glowing assessment of the brand of football.
Hopefully, any lingering doubts over whether the two can work together or not have gone away.
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