Eddie Howe unhappy with ‘uncomfortable ending’ to Newcastle win over Burnley | OneFootball

Head coach Eddie Howe was not a happy man after watching Newcastle almost throw away Premier League victory for the second time in a week when beating Burnley 2-1 at St James’ Park.

Having seen the Magpies surrender their lead to Tottenham in stoppage time on Tuesday evening, Howe looked on as Burnley substitute Zian Flemming headed wide at the end to leave him relieved.

Asked if his team had made hard work of it, Howe said: “Very much so. That was an uncomfortable ending for us.

“There’s certainly a lot to learn and we’re learning with a victory behind us rather than a negative result. We have to improve our management of games at the latter stages and today that nearly cost us.

“We have to be very honest and say that wasn’t a good period for us, although it was a tough game today.

“I always thought it was going to be in the sense that Burnley are very well organised and made it difficult for us. It wasn’t our finest performance, a long way short of that.

“But we got the job done, 10 points out of 12, we navigated a game where we didn’t play well and won. We have to be positive.”

The Magpies looked to be cruising to victory when Bruno Guimaraes scored direct from a corner and Anthony Gordon converted a penalty in first-half stoppage time either side of Lucas Pires’ red card for a trip on Anthony Elanga.

However, they failed to build upon their advantage and substitute Flemming’s spot-kick in added time at the end of the game sparked a late flurry in which the same man headed wastefully wide, although a foul during the build-up may have cut short his joy in any case.

Clarets boss Scott Parker was left to reflect upon what might have been, but his overriding emotion was one of pride.

Parker said: “I’ve sat here a few times this year after a result where we’ve not won a game and I’ve probably sat here with the words of ‘We’re a little bit frustrated’, ‘We’re a little bit disappointed’ in certain moments.

“It’s the polar opposite today, to be honest. I’m proud. I just thought generally the way we played, we were every bit the team we need to be and I wanted us to be.

“It was a just a top, top, top performance, to be honest with you.”

If Howe went home with food for thought ahead of Wednesday night’s Champions League trip to Bayer Leverkusen and next Sunday’s derby at Sunderland, he did so having finally managed to get £55million summer signing Yoane Wissa on the pitch as a late substitute.

Asked how important the former Brentford striker could be, he said: “Really important. He’s done a lot of work to get to this point.

“He has a lot more work to do to get to the very best level that he can, but we’re very pleased to have him available.”