Eddie Howe’s brutal reaction to West Ham shocker and apology to Newcastle fans

Our search for a first away win of the Premier League season continues, as we fell 3-1 to West Ham at the London Stadium.

Jacob Murphy gave us a dream start, scoring in the 4th minute, but West Ham quickly took control. A long-range strike from Lucas Paqueta and an unfortunate deflection off Sven Botman put the Hammers ahead.

The second half saw one of our most lackluster performances since the takeover, with substitutions from Nick Woltemade and Anthony Gordon failing to trouble goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. Tomas Soucek added a third goal in stoppage time to seal the victory.

Eddie Howe reflects on the defeat
Howe admitted that there were no excuses for the performance and called on everyone involved, including himself, to reflect on what went wrong.

“I can’t really defend that performance. It was really disappointing, especially after such a promising start,” Howe said.
“We made uncharacteristic errors and collectively were off today. You could see that in the first-half performance—it wasn’t just one or two players.”

He added, “That’s the harsh reality of football. You can win three games in a row and feel like you’ve turned a corner, then reality hits. We gave ourselves problems, and it caught up with us. Another big opportunity in the Premier League has been missed.”

Apologies to the travelling fans
Frustration among our travelling supporters is growing. Following three consecutive 0-0 draws and back-to-back defeats to Brighton and West Ham, we remain winless on the road, scoring only two goals in that span.

Howe stressed the importance of improving our away form, urging the team to approach every match with the same focus as at home for the sake of our loyal fans.

“Whatever the environment, whether home or away, we must find a way to perform better. There are no excuses. That wasn’t good enough, and we’ll aim to improve next time,” he said.

Where things went wrong
On paper, this should have been a routine victory against a side with the league’s second-worst defensive record.

But today’s loss mirrored last season’s defeat at St James’ Park, where we also underperformed against a weaker opposition.

“We were disappointing by the standards we’ve set lately. Going a goal up was a great start, and Murph’s strike was brilliant, but we didn’t build on it,” Howe admitted.

“I felt the team regressed as the first half progressed. We tried to adjust at half-time, but it didn’t work. Overall, it was a day where we were collectively off.”