A dismal performance condemned us to another defeat on the road in the Premier League on Sunday, as Brentford came from behind to win 3-1 at the GTech Community Stadium.
Some brilliant footwork and a tidy finish from Harvey Barnes put us 1-0 up, but poor defending and individual mistakes from Nick Pope, Dan Burn and Sven Botman allowed the hosts to score three without response in the second half.
With Manchester City just the first of some huge games coming after the international break, Eddie Howe has a lot of work to do if we want to get ourselves into a comfortable position heading into 2026.
Here’s what the visibly gutted gaffer had to say after a disappointing display down in West London, with his full post-match press conference available below, followed by some of the key quotes:
Howe’s verdict on today’s performance
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After the loss against West Ham, Howe was unnaturally angry with the team’s performance, hinting that he could have substituted any player at half time after the first half collapse.
By contrast, Howe seemed a lot more disappointed in himself than the team after the Brentford loss, taking responsibility for the defeat:
> _“Yeah tough day today for us. Really difficult feeling at the moment. That was a tough game, second half was really disappointing.”_
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> _“Got ourselves in a really good position, and we know what type of game it was going to be: real physical challenge for us, a lot of set plays._
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> _“I felt we really did well in that first half, we navigated it excellently. But we switched off for a second, we got punished and the game changed.”_
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> _“We know it’s not good enough, and I take responsibility for that. The biggest thing is we stay together and are motivated for what is to come._
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> _“At the moment, we are suffering. We know we will rightly be criticised for our away form, and all we can do is stick together and fight back.”_
On what went wrong and where to improve
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Though we took the lead with a stunning strike from Barnes, few will deny that Keith Andrews’ side didn’t deserve all three points on Sunday afternoon.
With just a single shot on target and ten men on the pitch by the time the final whistle blew, we weren’t as poor as we were at the London Stadium, but many will feel that we still didn’t try hard enough for the win.
> _“Well I think that one moment of course changes the feeling in the stadium. So we needed to be better technically today, I think overall that’s the big area for us.”_
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> _“We were very loose with the ball today. A lot of unforced errors I’d say put us under pressure, and it meant they showcased their strengths more than we did ours.”_
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> _“We didn’t create many chances today, that’s a huge disappointment, that’s what we pride ourselves on. So there’s a lot of reflection I think, and a lot of time now to make sure we fix the problems we have for our next group of games.”_
On a squad in need of a confidence boost
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With his back against the wall, Howe has often excelled at rallying the team and boosting the overall confidence enough to string together some great results.
In fact, we did it at around this same time last season following a 3-1 loss away to Brentford, going on one of the best streaks in the club’s modern history.
But right now, both Howe and the players themselves seem to recognise that our away performances haven’t been up to standard, and it’s shook the team to its core.
> _“I thought the players were there. I thought they were present. I thought they gave everything to the game physically. But I think it was clear, for me, if you watch Newcastle regularly, we were lacking in confidence.”_
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> _“There were a lot of technical mistakes today, which is really unlike us, especially in the middle of the pitch, which contributed to putting us under pressure._
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> _“Confidence will now be an issue for sure because I think they’re honest players, really good people. They care._ _They want to do well. But the team’s taken a few hits and I think that showed. So, we’ve got enough experience to respond in the right way._
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> _“We’ve got enough experience to have been there before and then know how to deal with this moment. We know we’re going to get criticised. We expect that. I don’t see that being a problem for us as long as we stick together and we’re really unified in this difficult period.”_