'Disappointing': Not even relentlessly-positive Eddie Howe could salvage anything good to say about NUFC's defeat at Man City

Eddie Howe was obviously not a happy man at full-time on Saturday after Manchester City thoroughly put Newcastle United to the sword.

If there's one thing that winds us up about Eddie Howe, it's that he always, always tries to spin things into a positive. After a poor performance, he'll always focus on anything positive he can find, and while we understand what he's doing, sometimes, we'd just like him to come out and tell it how it is.

We're sure he's not sugar-coating things in the dressing room as that would be a huge problem if he was, but sometimes, as fans, we just want to hear some hard truths and hear our manager admit things went wrong.

When speaking to NUFC TV after the game yesterday, we got about as close to that from Eddie Howe as we're ever likely to get.

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

This was as close as we get to seeing Eddie Howe fly off the handle in an interview

Eddie Howe admitted that he was disappointed in the performance, which is about as damning as you're ever likely to hear.

"Disappointing game. Disappointing result. Disappointing performance from us. We came here with high expectations really of what we could deliver, but, no, it wasn't there today."

Even when specifically asked for positives with a leading question of an improved second-half performance, Howe struggled.

"The second half was better. Lewey MIley was good when he came on; he added a real calmness and composure to our game and also a fighting quality and an ability to regain the ball high. But other than that, I'm struggling"

Whoa, steady on Eddie!

Eddie Howe said the performance was 'painful' to watch

The gaffer hadn't calmed at all by the time he faced the gathered media with The Chronicle reporting that he called it 'painful' to watch.

"It was painful to watch from the sideline. We were a yard off where we needed to be, and we seemed to be reactive. We allowed their good technical players too much space. "They do have very good technical players, and I know a lot has been made of their run, but for me, with the ball, they’re still the best team in the Premier League.

"We’ve had some difficult games here but weren’t competitive enough. We weren’t in their face enough, and when you come up 50-50 against any direct opponent, we were losing too many of those battles. Ultimately, too many of those things cost you matches."