EDDIE HOWE admits Newcastle United’s late concession against Watford was “damaging” to his side’s hopes of avoiding relegation – and accepts his players have developed a "psychological" weakness that means they are unable to hold on to a lead.

The Magpies were on their way out of the bottom three as they led with three minutes left at St James' Park thanks to Allan Saint-Maximin’s second-half strike.

But Joao Pedro stole between Jamaal Lascelles and Kieran Trippier to head home Kiko Femenia’s cross, ensuring Newcastle remain in 19th position in the table, having played more games than all bar one of their relegation rivals.

Howe said: “We know it’s damaging today because it was a great opportunity for us to beat a direct rival. When you’re 1-0 up with a couple of minutes to go, it’s an even better opportunity.

“We know that we’ve damaged ourselves to a point. But you always have an opportunity. At this moment in time, we’re into the second half of the season, and we still have a chance to bounce back from it. The games don’t get any smaller – they get bigger with every match.”

Newcastle have lost 21 points from winning positions this season, and have won just one of the ten league matches in which they have taken the lead.

Howe accepts that points to a mental fallibility, with his side having dropped deeper and deeper during today’s game as Watford gained the upper hand after falling behind.

Howe said: “I think it’s psychological. I think there was a thought to protect what we had, but so early in the game, we lost our attacking threat and that should never be the case so early in the game. I think that’s linked to confidence, and probably not having won as many games as we would have liked in a long period of time.

“I think the only way you can build that is to get over the line and win, and we did that against Burnley recently. I hoped that would be the catalyst for an improvement in that phase of our play, but today we didn’t get over the line.

“I just hope that doesn’t leave mental scars for the players. I’m sure it won’t because we’ll go into the game, analyse it and review it, and do some work to try to change it.”