‘We were very competitive’ Eddie Howe reflects on Bristol City 4 Newcastle United 1
· Yahoo Sports
Eddie Howe watched on as the final scoreline read Bristol City 4 Newcastle United 1.
The United boss has been reflecting on what he witnessed.
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A strange game as Newcastle United had over 70% possession, I think the final corner count was 16 v 1 in Newcastle’s favour, whilst Bristol City scored with pretty much every shot on target they managed, plus the final one that Sven Botman diverted into his own net.
Newcastle United had a number of decent chances of their own and got into a lot more decent positions, as well as all of the set-piece opportunities, yet the choice to pass or shoot was often so wrong and the execution of those shots, passes and crosses.
Whilst at the other end the defending clearly wasn’t good enough.
Eddie Howe speaking to official club media:
*“I thought it was a very good test for us. The scoreline is a difficult one for us to take, I don’t think we deserved that at all. I think anyone who watched the game would have seen that we were very competitive. The goals we conceded were strange ones. First one is obviously a long range free-kick, it was a good strike from their lad and I think it took a slight deflection on the way in. Second one is I think a foul on Sven [Botman]. Third one we made a mistake and got counter-attacked. And the fourth one is an own goal. I think they have had six shots in the game and scored four goals. The majority of the game I think we had control of with the ball, we probably didn’t do enough with it in terms of creativity and chances. Although we certainly should have scored more than the one we got.”*
Club interviewer: “A good crowd, good opponents, obviously 3,500 Newcastle United fans as well. You say a good test, is that exactly the type of challenge you want at this stage of the pre-season?”
Eddie Howe: “Yeah, it is. Ideally you don’t want to lose, I’m not saying that we are happy to lose, we’re not, we wanted to win the game. But you do want a test, you don’t want the games to be too easy. We knew coming here with the squad that we have and the current state of their physical well being, in terms of we haven’t trained for too long compared to a Championship team who no doubt will be a week to two weeks ahead of us. We knew it would be very difficult, we felt we would be probably strong enough to do better in terms of scoreline. But I am really pleased the players came through extended minutes. Fitness levels looked pretty good and we will be better for the game.”
Club interviewer:“The one player who didn’t come through too long of the game was Fabian Schar. He came off early, he walked off, is that an encouraging sign?”
Eddie Howe:*“Yeah, I think it is an encouraging sign. I’m not quite sure what the injury is. I don’t think Fab is entirely sure himself. He felt a bit of tightness in his groin and it was nagging him as the game went on. He had to come off and that was a blow for us because two such good distributors of the ball, Sven and Fabi together, but Alex [Murphy] did well when he came one. But obviously that meant a reshuffle with a left footer playing on the right side.”*
Newcastle United friendlies:
Saturday 18 July 2026
Newcastle United 3 Darlington 0 (Willock, Osula, Neave with the goals)
Saturday 25 July 2026
Gateshead 1 Newcastle United 1 (A Gateshead own goal producing the equaliser)
Wednesday 29 July 2026
Bristol City 4 Newcastle United friendly 1 (Harvey Barnes scoring when United were 3-0 down)
Saturday 8 August 2026
Valencia v Newcastle friendly 9pm local time (8pm UK time)
Wednesday 12 August 2026
Newcastle v Everton pre-season friendly with 5.15pm kick-off at Murrayfield.
Saturday 15 August 2026
Newcastle United v Bayer Leverkusen friendly at St James’ Park, 3pm.
Sunday 16 August 2026
Newcastle United v Strasbourg friendly at St James’ Park, 4pm.
Sunday 23 August 2026
Newcastle v Liverpool 4.30pm – United’s first Premier League match of the season