‘Great to see’… Eddie Howe shares what Newcastle were doing in the first-half last night which he loved

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On a difficult night for Newcastle United Eddie Howe has chosen to focus on what his team did so well at despite their loss to Chelsea.

Newcastle are now out of the Carabao Cup just a week after also being knocked out of the Champions League, so it’s a wonder that Howe has any positivity left.

In his interview with NUFCTV after the game, however, Howe was appreciative of the team’s ability to soak up pressure and hit Chelsea on the counter attacking during the first half.

Howe says Newcastle were ‘really good’

It wasn’t a vintage performances from Howe’s Newcastle, but that hasn’t been the case for some time now away from home as the Magpies suffered yet another defeat outside of St James’ Park.

Instead, what Newcastle were good at last night was keeping the Chelsea attackers quiet despite them having the majority of the ball following Callum Wilson’s opening goal.

Many supporters were frustrated at what they perceived to be just sitting back and waiting for Chelsea to create a chance, but it was only down to an individual late error from Kieran Trippier that prevented this system from working.

Howe was actually very pleased with how organised the defence were, winning big tackles in key areas and finding the open space on the counter, but the 45-year-old admitted that they lost that as the game went on.

In his interview, Howe said: “Our defensive positioning first, covering space, and individual duals, battles, I thought we were really good. I thought we were a real counter threat in the first half, which was great to see, we lost that threat in the second half.

“But as we fatigued a bit and lost our legs slightly but then we sort of accepted our role and I thought were going to see the game through. I couldn’t see them scoring in that moment. I just didn’t see a goal coming for them, we looked comfortable and it looked like we had absorbed most their threats.

“They had change things but it didn’t really change the flow of the game. The goal is just one of those things that can happen on a football pitch because there are moments and things that happen.”

Newcastle were seconds away from a huge result

Ultimately Newcastle lost the game and are out of the cup which is what is most important, but it’s easy to forget just how close they were to winning the match – literally seconds.

Had it not been for Trippier’s poor touch in added time, Howe could be leading Newcastle into a second successive semi final having beaten Chelsea and the atmosphere around the club would be hugely positive.

Instead, one costly mistake has almost flipped the season on its head with the timing so close to a European exit, and now a lot of pressure will be placed on the Premier League campaign and the FA Cup tie against Sunderland next month.