Eddie Howe refuses to panic after Palace defeat but questions mentality of some Newcastle United stars

Newcastle United's run-in suffered a wobble at Selhurst Park and Eddie Howe was keen to emphasise exactly that as his players boarded the bus in South London for the journey home.

They have just a couple of days to get things right in time for the home encounter with rock bottom Sheffield United. The Blades are doomed and the opportunity to record what would be a morale boosting win lies in wait in the penultimate home game of what has been a testing campaign.

Howe, having been at the coalface all season, knows this better than anybody but now is not the time for Newcastle to overreact after a bad show under the lights in the capital. The 2-0 loss against the Eagles should be deemed a bump in the road and nothing more.

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Even after Newcastle surrendered sixth place after Manchester United beat Sheff United, because of results elsewhere in the run-in, Newcastle still have a hand on a place in the Europa Conference League and that can be upgraded to the Europa League. in the remaining games.

Regardless of what happens in the FA Cup final, that extra Euro spot looks set to be released for the team that finishes seventh.

Howe told Chronicle Live: "It’s still very much in our control of what we do. We can have a really successful season.

"We’ve been really consistent in the last four games, where we’ve delivered big efforts to get results, but this feels like a flat feeling, that we haven’t delivered that. We have to take accountability for that, and make sure the uncomfortable feeling we’re encountering now, we put right on Saturday."

Howe opted for a wing-back system for the second game running it worked a treat against Spurs in the 4-0 win when Newcastle were not in possession. But it failed at Palace, and failed miserably.

The head coach said: "After the win against Tottenham, we were prepared to go the same way. I thought, tactically, the game would suit us that way.

"I had no issue doing so, but our execution has to be better than that. Our execution against Tottenham was of the highest level – here, it wasn’t.

"Both teams were trying to press each other. Crystal Palace played well, and it was no surprise to us that they were going to come and press, with a new manager and new philosophy. We were prepared for that, but we didn’t execute well enough."

Just after the hour mark, Howe ripped up his Plan A and then handed Callum Wilson and Lewis Hall the chance to make things better with Plan B. Howe said: "We were trying to find a way to help the team. We make substitutions and tactical tweaks, but whenever you talk tactically, it’s always about the attitude of the group, first and foremost.

"If you’re not quite where you need to be mentally, for whatever reason, then it doesn’t matter what you do tactically, you’re going to fall down. And I think that’s probably where we were."

Newcastle did fall down in Croydon on Wednesday night but they have the perfect chance to dust themselves down and get back to the team fans know they can be.