Brentford 3-1 Newcastle: Eddie Howe says ‘we let everyone down’

The issues in defense are as worrying for Newcastle as their lack of goals.

When they failed to score on each of the first three days away from home this season, they could have at least returned to a resilient backline to keep a clean sheet and secure a point against Aston Villa, Leeds United and Bournemouth.

But Newcastle have since conceded eight goals – at Brentford, Brighton and West Ham – and a team of supposed giants finally collapsed at the JTech Stadium.

After Sven Botman threaded Michael Kayode’s long throw across his own net, goalkeeper Nick Pope was at sea as Kevin Scheid equalized for his side.

Guimarães may have argued with referee Stuart Attwell that Pope had been fouled, but the goal stood and Newcastle never recovered.

Dan Byrne was very lucky not to be awarded a penalty – the first time around – after bringing down Danjou Ouattara inside the box.

But instead of sending Byrne off and on – at a time when the 6ft 7in defender was receiving a yellow card – Howe chose not to.

By the time left-back Lewis Hall finally entered the fray, off the bench, his side were 2-1 down after an Igor Thiago penalty, Byrne was sent off for a second yellow card after Ouattara was fouled, and Pope was limped off with concussion on an afternoon when Joelinton was also limped off.

However, Newcastle’s defense became worse.

Malick Thiaw failed to cut out Matthijs Jensen’s through ball to score Brentford’s third goal and the wide-eyed Botman was too slow to react when Thiago slotted the ball under substitute Aaron Ramsdale.

This brought back memories of Newcastle’s display at the Getek Stadium at a similar stage last season, when the visiting team lost 4-2.

That painful loss marked a turning point, but nothing suggests this team is about to embark on a massive nine-game winning streak again.

They look away from that.

“We take full responsibility for what we deliver, and only we can change it,” Howe said.