Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media following today’s 4-2 defeat to Brentford, bemoaning our awful defensive performance and apologising to Newcastle United fans for such a poor display.
It was a whirlwind start as goals from Mbeumo and Wissa were cancelled out by Isak and then Barnes, but our second-half display was flat and full of more defensive errors, where a series of basic errors allowed Collins to make it 3-2 before Schade made it four in stoppage time.
Howe’s apology to fans
In a message directly to fans after the game, Howe issued an apology to Newcastle supporters, vowing to put things right after defeat left us 12th in the table and closer to Leicester in 17th than the top four:
“I’m really sorry for what we delivered,” Howe said. “We will work as hard as we can to put that right. There was a willingness to win and fight but I don’t think it was strong enough.”
The boss then spoke to the media about our shocking defensive effort, where individual and collective mistakes were blamed as Brentford scored four to make it four games without a win for Newcastle:
“Very disappointed with how we defended today. The four goals we conceded we’ll look back on with regret because it wasn’t just individual mistakes, it was collective mistakes for all the goals, especially the third goal.
“We’ll look back and cringe”
Discussing our defensive effort at the Gtech, Howe didn’t hold back when assessing the goals we conceded, saying we’ll “cringe” at the number of mistakes when players eventually watch the game back.
Speaking to NUFC TV after the match, Howe also said: “The goals we conceded, we’ll look back and cringe. Poor defensively. All the goals featured three or four mistakes. Defend like that and you won’t win any game. You can’t defend like that.
“We weren’t cohesive as a team and we didn’t help each other – and we got punished.
Next up, Newcastle face Leicester City at St James’ Park in a week’s time, followed by a cup quarter-final at home to Brentford the following Wednesday.
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