Newcastle United held an emergency meeting in the direct aftermath of the Joe Willock social media attacks that led to police action. It was Eddie Howe who quickly set up a one-on-one with Willock last weekend after the Newcastle star had been subject to racist abuse and threats to his family.

Willock broke his silence on the incident after scoring twice in the FA Cup win over Birmingham City with the ex-Arsenal man paying tribute to his head coach after the victory at St Andrew's.

In his Press conference, Howe said: "Joe has handled himself really well this week. His response to what he suffered was really admirable, he's a very strong-willed person.

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"He loves his football and I think he's just concentrated on that this week and tried to put all other distractions behind him. It was a nice response from Joe - he let his football do the talking."

Willock said that Howe's careful understanding of the incident - after the defeat against Fulham last weekend - summed up the Newcastle boss and his relationship with his players.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live, Willock said: "When you have a good family, team-mates like your family, and a manager you can speak to about anything, it makes it so much easier. We had a meeting and the manager gave me comfort, that is why I have so much respect. I want to give the club everything because they have helped me through the hardest of times."

Speaking about Willock's brace in the five-goal thriller in the second city, Howe felt his contributions were exceptional on a night of thrills and spills in the FA Cup.

He said: "The two goals are typical Joe. I was really pleased with the second one because from our perspective we didn’t want extra time. It was a second half with not a lot of goalscoring opportunities so we needed to be clinical when they came and thankfully Joe was."