Eddie Howe believes Fabian Schar s early red card helped galvanise Newcastle United during their 1-0 victory over Southampton.
The Magpies made a winning start to the new Premier League season, with Joelinton s 45th-minute strike settling matters at St James Park.
Although, the hosts were forced to play for over an hour with 10 men, as Schar was dismissed for violent conduct after squaring up to Ben Brereton Diaz, who appeared to go to ground a little too easily.
Nevertheless, they withstood their numerical disadvantage and stubbornly kept Southampton at bay, with Lewis Hall clearing off the line to deny former Newcastle striker Adam Armstrong.
The Magpies fourth straight Premier League win over the Saints came despite them enjoying just 22.3% of possession, and registering only three shots to their opponents 19.
STARTING THE SEASON WITH A WIN!
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC)
It wasn t an enjoyable game to experience, Howe said. The result is unbelievable for us, but how we got there was very, very difficult.
The sending off changed the game completely. Contact was minimal. It was a harsh sending off, but we ll learn from it.
I don t know if a sending off ever truly helps you, but it gets the crowd to inspire you – and that made a difference. We needed something to galvanise us and [the red card did]. We had our backs to the wall and I think [the fans] knew how much we needed them.
Last season, we scored a huge amount of goals, but conceded too many. We ve done a lot of work on our defensive shape in pre-season. The players regrouped today and produced a great display. To a man, we were blocking shots, we were covering space very well.
Howe also saluted stand-in skipper Bruno Guimaraes, who wore the armband with Kieran Trippier on the bench, for his all-action display in the middle of the park.
I thought he led by example, the Newcastle head coach said of the Brazil international, who led the way with game-high tallies of 12 duels won, six fouls won and four tackles won.
Defensively, he covered every blade of grass. He was immense today. I thought Sean [Longstaff] and Joelinton were equally good.
