Howe apologises to Newcastle fans but defends players after derby defeat to Sunderland | OneFootball

Eddie Howe apologised to the Newcastle supporters following his side’s defeat to fierce rivals Sunderland.

The Magpies were beaten 1-0 at the Stadium of Light after Nick Woltemade headed through his own net and Howe admits the performance was far from good enough.

“So disappointed for our supporters and sorry for the performance really in the sense of a lack of goalmouth action, the lack of clinical attacking which we’ve tried to pride ourselves on over recent seasons,” the Newcastle boss said.

“It wasn’t there today and for that we’re sorry. It certainly wasn’t a lack of effort from the lads but today wasn’t our day.”

Howe defended his players, including Woltemade, however, insisting it was not a lack of effort or desire that was to blame.

“I hope he won’t take that personally,” Howe said on the Germany striker. “It’s one of those things that can happen in a game.

“He’s gone back with good intentions and he’s defended set plays for us well since he’s been here. That’s just an unfortunate moment and I don’t hold him in any way responsible for that.

“I don’t think anyone has gone out there with any other intention than trying to win the game and give their best.

“Was there possibly a bit of fatigue in our performance? Yes. Not an excuse, just a reality.

“We’re stretched in our backline, we’ve got a number of injuries and that is alarming for us so it’s not a perfect field for us currently, we’re battling a few situations, but we still have to say we should have played better.

“In our preparation we tried to cover every base in terms of the importance of the fixture but I think in professional sport sometimes there’s random events in games which dictate how the players feel and that’s nothing to do with the preparation or importance of the game, it’s sport.

“The game twists and turns in moments and those moments went against us today.”