Eddie Howe’s glittering run at Newcastle United has now run into a Black Cat — or 11 — and he’s under serious fire.
The Magpies have dropped all six points to their newly-promoted rivals after throwing away an early lead at home to Sunderland in Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby.
MORE — Recap, video highlights | Could Howe be done at NUFC?
Regis Le Bris again outfoxed his counterpart with halftime adjustments and Newcastle are below their rivals on the Premier League table.
And there was a pause in the match for an allegation of racism toward a player. Sunderland and Newcastle have both condemned racism, with the Black Cats acknowledging that fullback Lutsharel Geertruida was the target.
“We are aware of a report of racism made by a visiting player against someone in the crowd during our Premier League match against Sunderland. Our stance is clear – we do not tolerate discrimination of any form. We will work with the authorities to fully investigate and will ensure any individuals are identified and held accountable.”
Eddie Howe reaction — Newcastle boss speaks after another Tyne-Wear derby setback
What to make of loss? “Painful, tough afternoon for us. Positive start. When we scored we wanted to go and dominate the game. We never really capitalized on that momentum. The first half fizzed out. Second half we were second best. Too many giveaways. Too many times we gave momentum back to Sunderland. Defeat’s harsh on us.”
“We have to really look at ourselves and make sure we learn from all the mistakes we made. It’s happened to us before. This isn’t a one-off. Yes there have been mitigating
“It was so delicately poised. Sven hits the post. Malick’s goal is chalked off. These are big momentum swingers for us. We wanted the second goal. We needed to defend our goal better than we did in the two moments we conceded.”
How do you respond to this? “We’ve got some massive games to come. We get a chance to go into a different phase of our season. Week-to-week we can train and maybe get that freshness back into our performance. We’re going into this on a negative so we’ll need a lot of character to respond.”
Still hope to reach Europe? “We’ll never give up on anything. We’ll always go for what we can. I want to see more domination of the ball and better chances. We have a lot to reflect on.”
On a pause in the game for alleged racism: “We don’t condone any racism and it’s something the club will investigate.”
Did the season catch up to you in the second half? “We’re not looking for that excuse. We’ve had a really demanding season but I though we were in control of the game. Second half we did fade away. We lost a lot of hope and a lot of confidence.”
What happened in the second half? “We felt that we could control the game but we were never in full control in the second period. The decline in our performance meant that they arrived in an attacking force. We could’ve done more. There were some really good bits in the first half. We wanted more chance creation. There were moments but not enough. The pain of losing this fixture is very real but we have to face this now.”
Tough loss for everyone, painful; “We know that the pain that we feel is intensified by the supporters. We know how they feel. Being in our own stadium and having the lead, all we can do is try our best to recover as quickly as possible and focus on our next game.”
Anthony Gordon reaction — Mentality a problem in second half
Game fell apart in second half? “That’s the team we’ve been for too long now. The past few years we’ve been the team to go on to 2-0, 3-0. The stadium gets a bit shaky when we’re ahead. It’s been a different kind of year for us.”
Europe has asked a lot of you: “It does but I don’t think today was a physical problem. We outran them and dominated them physically in the first half. Repeatedly this year the way we started the second half was a problem. We knew that — I spoke about it in the changing room before went out and still we were poor. It was just a mental thing. We let them in and we let them get comfortable.”
Good chance to reset? “We’re going to have to. That’s what football’s about. The next game is always the most important one. There’s no denying this will be tough to get over for us and especially for the fans because we’ve lost both games. But our job is try our best to make it up to them. I think the only way to do that now is to get in one of the European competitions and that’s our main focus.”