Eddie Howe on big positives from Newcastle 2-0 Athletic Bilbao and the road ahead

A big night at St James’ Park saw us move up to 6th place in the Champions League table after our 2-0 win at home against Athletic Bilbao.

It wasn’t always pretty, but goals from Dan Burn and Joelinton proved to be the difference makers: each man heading their goals home as we put ourselves into a very strong position to qualify for at least the play-offs of the league phase.

Last season, 16 points was enough for Aston Villa to secure 8th in the table, and we’re well on track to surpass that with games against struggling PSV, Marseille and Leverkusen sides still to come.

But despite the win, it wasn’t the dominant performance many of us will have been hoping for ahead of our crunch clash against Brentford on Sunday. Here’s what Eddie Howe had to say after the game…

On comfortable win over Athletic Bilbao

Following on from Sunday’s surprise loss to West Ham, where Howe bemoaned that he could have taken off anyone at half time after a truly poor first half display, Wednesday night’s win was a noticeably improved and professional performance from the lads.

Though the visitors did cause a couple of scares after some sloppy passes gave the ball away, we were otherwise the more dominant side on the night, seeing Howe praise the mentality of his players in their response to Sunday:

“Really pleased with today. I thought we navigated that one really well. Our psychology (in our response to Sunday) was really good and I thought we were in a good place mentally. Three wins in a row and some strong performances at home. 

"It was an important response to West Ham, I think that was a really disappointing day. We had a really quick turnaround for this game, and we prioritised a few things in our performance.”

“I don’t think that was us at our very best but that was good enough to win. We’re in a good position now in this competition.”

On Burn stunner and big Joe's goal

Another big game, another big contribution by Dan Burn, as he scored a truly astounding header to make it 1-0 early in the first half.

A well-worked routine, Kieran Trippier’s cross found Burn unmarked in the Bilbao box, and the boy from Blyth’s bullet header found the back of the net from quite some range, with Howe giving the goal some very high praise.

"In terms of a technical header that was incredible. It was very reminiscent of the cup final.”

“It was an incredible header from distance and he’s arrowed it into the top corner.”

“Yes it was a training ground move. Well done to all the coaches involved with that.”

"We need to score more from set plays, so that was really positive for us."

And it wasn’t the only header we scored tonight, as Joelinton returned to the scoresheet with his goal soon after halftime. Having faced some criticism in recent weeks, the Brazilian redeemed himself with an overall strong showing at St James’ Park.

“He (Joelinton) needs to score. He’s always done that, a scorer of big goals for us. We’ve worked a lot recently in the last few weeks of him arriving late in the box and using his aerial strength from crosses.”

“I was really pleased with that goal for him because we need our 8s and our wide men to chip in with more goals so hopefully that’s a good start for him.”

On current Champions League focus

Wednesday night’s win marked our third win in the competition in a row, something which we’ve only managed once before in European football, as well as our third clean sheet in a row.

After the rollercoaster that was the 23/24 UCL campaign, seeing us so easily dispatch some established European sides has been a welcome sight to see, and Howe has been very pleased with what we’ve shown so far in the competition, particularly after our recent Premier League outings.

“This format I think is really good, really enjoyable, more games but it’s a bigger test I think when you return to the Premier League. We’re finding that mentally and physically so we’ve got work to do in that respect.”

“But I think it was really good to have a game this week off the back of West Ham: I think that was a real positive and a chance to put that performance away and amend some things that we did wrong.”

“Defensively I thought we looked really good, and we scored two good goals.”

On difficult away trips to Brentford and Marseille

As comfortable as we have been at home in recent fixtures, there’s some tough away ties up ahead: up next in fixture list is a difficult journey town to West London where we’ll play Brentford.

And in the Champions League, a tough test awaits us in France as we jet off to Marseille for game week  five. Les Olympiens only have three points to their name so far in the competition, but Howe isn’t underestimating the challenge that playing away from home poses.

“I think just across the board it’s consistency in our performances wherever we play, so I think that’s the big challenge.

"I think the interesting thing is now is we go away in the Champions League, so certainly we need to address that form in all competitions, it’s not associated to just the one.”

“Our next game, Marseille, will be incredibly difficult but a great test for us. And we’re looking forward to our Premier League return on Sunday against Brentford.”