Is it time that Eddie Howe started being more critical in interviews? - NUFC boss was 'pretty pleased' after last night's defeat

Newcastle United's winning streak came to an abrupt halt last night as the Magpies suffered a home defeat to West Ham United despite having been backed to run riot over the Hammers.

In what has been a worrying trend this season, Newcastle controlled the play in the middle of the park, but then when it came to finding that killer pass, cross or shot were so far below par it was practically embarrassing.

It's almost as if the more time Newcastle have on the ball the fewer ideas they have. The entire squad is incapable of breaking down a side that is comfortable to sit in and defend.

Then when it came to defending, there's no nice way of saying this - Lloyd Kelly showed us why he was a free signing this summer being at fault for both goals.

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Eddie Howe said he was 'pretty pleased' with THAT performance

However, equally as frustrating as the performance itself was Eddie Howe's post-match interview (via Newcastle World) in which he claimed he was 'pretty pleased' with how Newcastle played for 60 minutes.

"I'm pretty pleased with the first 60 minutes albeit we're losing the game 2-0. We opened them up and had chances to score. Up to that point I was pretty pleased but the last 30 minutes I didn't enjoy. We tried a bit too hard to score. We'll rue that when we watch the game back.

“For both goals we know we made individual mistakes. It was disappointing from our perspective. Very uncharacteristic from us because we've defended well in recent weeks.

"At the end we had players out of position, so I didn't like the way we looked at the end. But up until that 60 minute mark I thought we were the dominant team.”

Can we have some emotion please, Eddie?

While we can understand why Howe doesn't like to dig his players out in public, it's becoming embarrassing seeing him defend these hapless displays. We want to see some emotion ... can we see a reaction or something?

Coming out and saying you are pleased with a performance that produced two shots on target just makes you look clueless.

Yes we passed the ball around well at points, and we controlled possession for large periods of the game - but that was what West Ham wanted, it wasn't us playing well as much as it was West Ham letting us have the ball.

We can only hope that things were much different behind that closed dressing room door and that Howe told his players exactly what he thought.