Eddie Howe reacts - Why Burnley win is “massive” and his message to fans
Newcastle United ended 2025 on a high as we won our second away game of the campaign with a 3-1 victory over Burnley at Turf Moor.
Goals from Joelinton and Yoane Wissa inside the opening ten minutes, and a late Bruno Guimaraes strike saw us grab all three points and do the double over the Clarets.
It was a much-needed win after a rough December, and will have relieved a lot of pressure on the shoulders of Eddie Howe and the rest of the squad ahead of big games to come in January in the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Champions League.
Here’s what Howe had to say after the game:
On a “massive” three points
After the disappointing results against Chelsea and Manchester United, a win against Burnley felt like an absolute necessity last night.
It was anything but a vintage display, yet we found a way to get over the line in what Howe believes to be a timely show of character after a tough run of results.
“A massive win for us. I don't think it really matters tonight so much in terms of how we did it, we just needed to do it.”A really strong start from us, in recognition of how important the game was for us.
“I can't praise the players enough for how we battled through it. It was never going to be easy tonight. That second half was a massive 45 minutes for us.
”We needed to get over the line and put credit to the players for how they saw the game out and the character of the group.”
On current squad mentality
After the brutal series of results and tense fixtures this month has thrown the team’s way, many feared Tuesday night was heading towards more dropped points from a leading position.
However, there were some big performances on the pitch from the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton and Lewis Hall, showcasing that this Newcastle team is still fighting and in contention for a place in the race for European football.
Howe discussed his belief that we’re heading in the right direction, feeling scrappy wins like this are vital to lift our confidence levels.
“In my opinion, we're moving in the right direction in terms of level of performance. I think over time, if you continue to play well, I thought Manchester United were case in point.”I don't think we played badly (at Man Utd) and I think we had chances to get more from the game, but we didn't take the general performance for strong.
“I think over time you will win games with the quality of players that we have, and I think that showed today.
“We're not at our most confident level at the moment, I think that's obvious, but I do think it's a confidence issue more than anything else. And the only way to resolve that is to win games.”
On unwavering fan support
After dropping more points to the Big Six in recent games against Chelsea and Man Utd, Howe was under incredible pressure to deliver a big win against Burnley.
But away fans at Turf Moor stayed supportive of the manager and team, like they have all season, to which Howe was very grateful for.
“I’ve always felt that here, I’ve never felt any different, and that for me has been our key strength, the unity of the football club from supporters to the team.“That for me is key. I think if you lose that, you’ve got big problems, but we’ve always felt the support from the match day supporters and I really thank them for that. We needed them tonight.”
