17 December 2023 , 17:00
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Sean Longstaff says Newcastle have kickstarted their season… and planned a route back to the top four with boss Eddie Howe.
The Toon squad held a clear the head meeting after the hangover of losing to Milan last week and going out of Europe. Newcastle have now won seven home league games in a row, conceding just once, and an upturn in the away form would be useful against Chelsea on Tuesday in the cup.
Longstaff said: “We had a really good meeting on Friday about how we get back in there and what points we need and stuff like. We said it all starts today ahead of a massive week coming up. I think we had to do that. The European journey was amazing but it’s over now unfortunately.
“We’ve learnt a lot from being in the competition but ultimately to put those lessons into place we have to be in it again next year. We know that if we can win our next three games in the league the table will look very very different. It was a massive game starting today. We started well.”
Howe says the big games keep coming and Newcastle won’t slack off in the cup.
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He said: “It goes without saying that we want to get through (in cup). You’ve seen that with how seriously we’ve taken it so far.
"We’ve had such a tough fixture list in that competition, very similar to the Champions League for us, and now we go to Chelsea, so it doesn’t get any easier.
“We’ll go with the strongest squad and team we can. I think that’s a pretty obvious thing because there’s no one fit and available that’s not been with us today. But we’ll be trying to progress.”
Meanwhile, Fulham boss Marco Silva labelled referee Sam Barrott’s performance “strange” despite a blatant red card against Raul Jimenez.
The Portuguese boss admitted Fulham gave Newcastle a “quiet game” But he added: “"It was a really strange performance from the referee from the first minute to the last minute. The first foul for Fulham was after 21 minutes.
Referee Samuel Barrott sends off Fulham's Raul Jimenez (Alex Dodd - CameraSport via Getty Images)"[Jamaal] Lascelles cleared elbowed Raul and not even a foul. I'm not saying red card, but a clear foul.
"Two minutes later Raul has to be more calm and didn't challenge in the right way and the ball was not there to challenge for. I can accept if they decide it's a red card but what's difficult for me is two minutes before, Lascelles' elbow was not even a foul, not even a check.
"Everything was strange with the decisions. You need referees with experience and to be able to handle the pressure."
When asked if the ref was not experienced enough, Silva said: "Clearly, no doubt".