Eddie Howe bemoans ‘unrecognisable’ Newcastle team after shock loss at West Ham

Eddie Howe said his Newcastle side were “unrecognisable” after they slumped to a 3-1 defeat at struggling West Ham.

The Hammers had not won a home match since February and looked set for another torturous afternoon in front of their own fans when Jacob Murphy put Newcastle ahead, just 26 seconds after Jarrod Bowen had hit a post.

So far this season, conceding an early goal at home has been the cue for West Ham to capitulate, with Chelsea, Tottenham and Brentford all leaving Stratford with handsome wins under their belts.

But Newcastle, it seemed, had not got the memo and instead of going for the throat, the visitors retreated into their shells.

The Hammers had a penalty decision turned overturned by VAR before they equalised through Lucas Paqueta’s strike from the edge of the area.

Sven Botman turned Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross into his own net to give West Ham the lead at half-time, and despite a better showing from the visitors after the break, Tomas Soucek wrapped up the win in stoppage time.

“The dynamism wasn’t there today,” said Howe. “The physicality, the energy was missing from our performance. Hugely frustrating for us. A poor performance. We weren’t ourselves today.

“The numbers aren’t good in terms of our away form recently. We haven’t replicated our home form away but I think some of the performances have been good.

“But that’s the worse we’ve played during that run of games where we haven’t won.

“It didn’t look like a Newcastle team that we’ve seen in recent seasons. I think the body language, the collective spirit on the pitch, loads of little things that contribute to our performance weren’t there.

“The longer that first half went on, the more frustrated I was with our performance. We were unrecognisable in certain aspects of our game.

“I don’t think that was tactical and I don’t think that was necessarily technical. It was a byproduct of us just not being where we needed to be mentally.”

A few thousand West Ham fans staged a sit-in after the match, calling for owner David Sullivan to resign, and for once the team gave them a reason to stay until the end.

It was a first win for new boss Nuno Espirito Santo and he savoured it, jumping for joy on the touchline as Soucek slid in the clincher.

“We started well, we hit the post, counter-attack, they scored, it felt like, ‘again, we are in this'” he said.

“But the reaction of the boys was good. The penalty, overturning, all these feelings against us, but for me it’s the moment of the game, the way immediately we reacted to the things against us and kept believing.

“It makes it easier. Now, during the week, the legs will recover faster, there will be smiles, so much, much better to work, much, much easier to try and keep improving.

“Our idea is to try and give something to our fans. And today we did give them a small thing, and what they gave us back was huge.

“In the end, the noise in London Stadium was amazing. So we cannot thank them enough.”