Eddie Howe praises 'attitude' and offers injury update as NUFC dominate in the capital

Speaking after a comfortable 4-1 victory over Fulham, Eddie Howe was 'very pleased' with his teams 'attitude', heaped praise on Miguel Almiron and gave an update on why Joelinton was left on the bench.

Newcastle controlled the game from the minute Nathaniel Chalobah was sent off, a decision which the 44-year-old agreed with and admitted he thought Sean Longstaff was 'lucky' to come away unscathed.

Despite being 3-0 up at half-time, Howe revealed that the overall consensus in the dressing room was that we 'wanted more' and the boss was certainly impressed by that attitude throughout the afternoon.

Upon his return from injury, Callum Wilson grabbed our opening goal and was described as being 'razor sharp by his manager who was 'really pleased' to be able to substitute him on the 65th minute to protect him.

The ex-Bournemouth boss was also full of praise for goalscorer Almrion who Howe believes has 'epitomised' our team so far this season and has simply been 'unlucky' that his goal tally is not higher.

On the performance, Howe said: "It was all positive from us, a really good performance from the group. We knew we needed to win. Yes, there was a sending off, which certainly helped us, but even before that, I thought there was a good feel about the team."

On the sending off, Howe said: “I haven’t seen it again, but my initial feeling was, ‘Ooh, that’s high’. Whenever there’s height and force, the player’s safety is in danger. I thought Sean was lucky to get up from that one. I think the referee had a similar view – hence why he gave the red card.”

On Joelinton, Howe said: “Joelinton picked up a knee injury against Bournemouth, and hadn’t trained. He wanted to be involved, the type of character that he is. I wanted to protect him, knowing how important he is.”

On Callum Wilson, Howe said: "He's a goalscorer and that instinct is razor sharp at the moment. He started the season really well, unfortunately we missed him but he's come back today and I was really pleased to be able to protect him later in the game."