Eddie Howe revealed his love-hate relationship with football management after emerging from Newcastle’s nail-biting 4-3 Premier League victory over Nottingham Forest.
The 47-year-old stood on the sideline at St James’ Park on Sunday afternoon as the Magpies climbed into the top five and to within three points of third-placed Forest on an afternoon when his side conceded an early goal, raced into a 4-1 lead and then almost threw two points away.
Asked afterwards about his emotions, Howe said: “It’s probably why I do love management, even though I hate it at the same time in moments.
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“The elation which you feel for a split-second on some of the performance in that first half, the pride you see in the players doing well is then counteracted with all the feelings that the supporters feel, really, watching that game.
“You feel you have control on the sideline, but the reality is it’s very difficult to influence the game in the way that you want to, so yes, a bit of love and hate in there.
“But ultimately again taking the bigger picture, we’ve won the game, as difficult as that second half was.”
If Newcastle were stung by Callum Hudson-Odoi’s sixth-minute opener, they did not dwell on it and responded in remarkable fashion, scoring four times inside 11 minutes to lead 4-1.
Lewis Miley started the ball rolling before Jacob Murphy and Alexander Isak twice beat Matz Sels, the first of the Sweden international’s goals coming from a penalty awarded for handball against Ola Aina after lengthy VAR review.
Nikola Milenkovic reduced the deficit with 27 minutes remaining and Forest passed up a series of further chances before substitute Ryan Yates stabbed home in the final minute of normal time to increase the tension at St James’ Park, but ultimately to no avail.
Asked if a Champions League place is now the Magpies’ to lose, a guarded Howe said: “I think there’s a host of teams that will have that feeling.
“We’re in there fighting and I back us if we’re fighting and showing our best qualities, as we did in that first half.
“We’ll hopefully be there towards the end fighting and competing for that place, but nothing is guaranteed. It’s such a competitive league this year and you can see that from our recent home games.”
Opposite number Nuno Espirito Santo also suffered contrasting emotions on Tyneside on an afternoon when his team repeatedly shot themselves in the foot before mounting a fightback.
The Forest boss said: “Of course we are frustrated. But even though we created huge chances, I think the big issue of this game for us in terms of analysis is these 15 minutes in which we lost the game. This is what we have to focus on.
“I’d prefer it was 10 minutes more because the momentum was there. We created chances and we were on top, so who knows, with a little bit more time, we could have got something from this game.”
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