EDDIE HOWE admitted his players had to lift the St James’ Park crowd during this afternoon’s 3-1 win over Southampton.

Unlike in the previous weekend’s home game with Tottenham, the mood in Newcastle United’s home stadium was relatively flat during a first half that saw Southampton claim the lead thanks to a close-range strike from Stuart Armstrong.

Howe could understand the somewhat subdued atmosphere given his side’s lacklustre first-half showing, but his decision to replace Anthony Gordon with Callum Wilson at the break paid immediate dividends.

Wilson scored twice in the second period to inspire Newcastle to victory, and St James’ Park was rocking by the time the final whistle blew.

Howe said: “I think, quite rightly, it (the atmosphere) was flat, and I always say that it was our performance that made it that way. We weren’t great with the ball and looked a bit tired, a little bit off that high per cent you need at this level, and I thought, off the ball, we looked the same.

“We were flat, and that then meant the game and the crowd was flat, and that’s all our own doing. They tried to galvanise us at certain periods in that first half, but we couldn’t really get going.

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“I did have a feeling the second half would be different, attacking the Gallowgate End and with the scoreline as it was. We changed a couple of things tactically at half-time, and it was a much better performance, and the crowd then got in the game and certainly helped us over the line.”

Today’s victory caps an excellent seven days for the Magpies that has also featured a thumping home win over Spurs and an impressive away success at Everton.

Newcastle have moved onto the 65-point mark, and need to win three of their remaining five matches to guarantee a return to the Champions League next season.

Howe said: “It’s been a good week. It’s been three massive games for us, and three tough games. Today was a tough game in a different way to the others because we knew the expectation externally was probably that we were going to win.

“It can be very difficult sometimes to manage that, and we knew that Southampton would be difficult opponents. Their need is great as well, and they have quality players, so to find ourselves 1-0 down at half-time was a difficult thing, but I thought we handled ourselves brilliantly in the second half.”