Eddie Howe revealed his delight after Newcastle United returned to winnings with a 4-0 win against Leicester City at St James’ Park.
The Magpies responded emphatically to last weekend’s disappointing 4-2 defeat at Brentford via a Jacob Murphy brace and goals from Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak.
Murphy opened the scoring in the 30th minute when he finished off a clever corner routine involving Lewis Hall, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon.
Guimaraes made it 2-0 moments after half-time when Hall directed Gordon’s free-kick across goal, leaving the Brazilian unmarked at the back post. Hall didn’t take long to register another assist as his deflected cross reached Isak.
Isak then turned provider with his silky footwork setting up Murphy, who fired past Danny Ward in the Leicester City goal.
Providing his verdict on X, club legend Alan Shearer wrote: “That’s better. Dominated the whole game.” And Howe seemingly agreed.
Reflecting on the victory, Howe said: “It’s a big win for a lot of reasons but this week with two home games and the importance of both games, we needed to start well and this gives us a massive lift.
“It was important we responded to the Brentford performance in the right way and I thought we did, right from the start of the game I thought we looked engaged and mentally switched on to give a really athletic and technical performance.
“We had a bit of everything today, good attacking and defending and there were a lot of positive responses to the disappointment of last week.
“The result was the most important thing and of course how you get the result is hugely important especially off the back of the recent weeks that we’ve had so to create a lot of chances, to score four goals and keep a clean sheet are all huge things for us.
“It’s been a really good day but we have to make sure we wake up tomorrow and we are absolutely focused on our next game to deliver the same product.”
Having taken a lot of criticism following the Brentford lost, Howe felt there was a pressure on his side to beat the Foxes.
“I thought there was a lot of pressure on the players today, that wasn’t lost on me. You go from that performance last week, everything was set up for us today to answer a lot of questions and you still have to deliver it against a very dangerous team with a new manager.
“A great response in that pressured moment and good signs from us mentally because we’ve got to deal with that pressure. The first goal is important because we knocked on the door with a number of chances and didn’t take them until two really good set plays. It goes to show the importance of those moments. Really played with the first two goals.”
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