Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe offers insight into shaky start to season which saw Magpies being wildly inconsistent

The fact that Newcastle United are in the race for a Champions League place this season, having already lifted silverware, is truly remarkable when you think back to our form at the start of the campaign.

Newcastle had two different modes at the start of the season: winning while being awful, and dominating the game but getting beaten.

There seemed to be no happy medium for a while, and while we never felt like we were staring down the barrel of a relegation battle, we spent far too much time in the bottom half of the table.

Then December came around, and everything started to click for Eddie Howe's boys, and the ascent began, and now, here we are, aiming for a third-place finish.

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Eddie Howe has addressed Newcastle's poor start to the season

Eddie Howe has now addressed the inconsistent start to the season when speaking to the media (via The Chronicle) about whether his side can bounce back after the defeat to Aston Villa.

"I think it's down to the characteristics of the players, the leadership of the players. We do, and I've said many times this season, we have an unbelievable group of men that want success and are determined to bring success and they show that every day.

"I think if you're inconsistent with that, that's when you get real inconsistencies of results and I think we suffered that early season.

"I think we've handled ourselves and dealt with those situations a lot better as the season's gone on and I'd love to think now we're in a position where we can absorb a defeat and they will happen and poor performances will exist, but then we can try and put that right and I think that's the challenge that we face this weekend.'

Anything other than a Newcastle win on Saturday is unthinkable

Newcastle have been very good at hitting back after a defeat since the turn of the year, and, with no disrespect to Ipswich, the calibre of opponent on Saturday should give Newcastle that extra confidence boost.

Three points is obviously the main aim on Saturday, but I can't shake this feeling that we need to absolutely batter Ipswich to put the fear of Eddie Howe into our Champions League-chasing opponents.

Ipswich are battered and bruised already, anything other than a Newcastle win tomorrow is practically unthinkable.