Eddie Howe's international break admission & Newcastle's key focus during stoppage

EDDIE Howe admits the international break has come at a bad time for Newcastle United but the head coach's main focus during the fortnight stoppage will be maintaining the feel-good factor on Tyneside after three straight wins.

The Magpies headed into the break on the back of Sunday's superb come from behind victory at Nottingham Forest, which followed the home win over Arsenal and the Carabao Cup triumph over Chelsea.

Those three wins have transformed the mood on Tyneside, with Howe's side now just a point off third place and looking forward to a cup quarter final with Brentford next month.

Newcastle's momentum will be briefly halted for the domestic break in play, with several stars having now headed off to link up with their international squads for the coming fixtures.

Howe and the players who aren't on international duty will spend a few days in Saudi Arabia on a short warm-weather training trip. One plus for Howe is the fact Newcastle aren't in action again until the Monday when domestic play resumes, meaning the internationals have extra time to recover after returning to the North East.

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Howe admits, though, he'd rather the next game come sooner with the Newcastle squad buzzing after the recent charge.

"I think we have this discussion a lot, whether you win or lose dictates whether you want a break," said the head coach.

"We probably don't want one at this moment in time but it's there, it's an extended break because we play on the Monday.

"The [international] players will go away, we go to Saudi Arabia, we'll come back and try to keep the feeling we have now.

"We know we're in a good position and building our season. We have some key games to come."

Howe hailed the attitude of his players for the recent turnaround in form, with the three game stretch of victories following a five-match winless run in the league.

He said: "You want warriors. You want players to enter the pitch to enter in the right frame of mind. You want them to play for the badge and do everything it takes to win. We have certain players with those attributes already.

"Look at Dan Burn and Fabian Schar, they were excellent in a first half that wasn't totally ours [on Sunday].

"Forest had their moments and we needed our centre-backs to make sure we got in at half-time just 1-0 down. But I think going through the team in the second half we had a much better look at us. We had quality and we rolled our sleeves up."

Newcastle have now picked up eight points this season from losing positions.

Howe thinks that's partly down to squad depth and his substitutes making a positive impact, but also said: "The never say die attitude is there, we are never beaten until the final whistle goes. You have to keep going and you have to find ways of getting points from all positions.

"I'd like to think we are getting better at that. We don't necessarily want to be in those positions, we want to be getting the first goal in games, the challenge is to get better."