Eddie Howe ‘adamant’ Newcastle should have had penalty for challenge on Woltemade | OneFootball

Newcastle drew 0-0 with Bournemouth on Sunday, their third draw of the season, but manager Eddie Howe was insistent the Magpies were denied a clear penalty.

Bafode Diakite was tugging on Nick Woltemade’s shirt inside the Bournemouth box in the 52nd minute, but the referee signalled no penalty and the decision wasn’t overturned.

Howe disagreed with the call, saying: “My gut instinct was that it was a penalty. I was adamant it was. He was tugged and pulled and it stopped him getting a shot off.”

Newcastle now have one win in their last eight games in all competitions, in a run stretching back to last season. Their only win this season was against 20th place Wolves.

Howe’s side did however endure a gruelling contest against Barcelona on Thursday – which they lost 2-1 – and the 47-year-old said the game took a toll.

Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: “Thursday (Barcelona) took a lot out of us physically. It was such a tough game. If you look at the numbers of that game certain players hit tremendous sprint and high speed distances.

“Then two days later you need to come here which is one of the most intense games you’ll get in the Premier League which is why we made wholesale changes. We wanted to physically and mentally get a bounce. I was pleased with how the squad adapted and I thought we gave a good performance today.”

Interestingly, Howe has faced his former side Bournemouth seven times since leaving them, and has never won, drawing five times and losing twice.

Newcastle have only scored three goals in their five league games this season as they adapt to life without Alexander Isak. And Howe was under no illusions that their goalscoring struggles are a concern.

Asked if he was worried about the lack of goals, he replied: “Yeah of course. Worry is the wrong word. Whether we’re scoring or not we want to be creating. The creativity today wasn’t quite there. There were some promising moments that didn’t lead to what they should have done.

“There’s certainly stuff for us to work on. We’re not going to get much training time so it’s really game to game for us. But we have the players to score.”