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Individually and collectively not our best - Howe
Kieran Trippier looked like he was reliving a nightmare.
The Newcastle United defender was doubled over with his hands covering his face after his side conceded another late winner in a 2-1 Premier League defeat against Bournemouth at St James' Park.
The substitute could scarcely believe it as goalscorer Adrien Truffert wheeled away in delight, but this has been an all too familiar tale.
"Over the time I've been here, we have been a real force, especially at home," a visibly stunned Trippier told NUFC TV. "We have been feared. Teams have feared coming here."
No other side has conceded more late goals than flaky Newcastle (19) in the Premier League this season.
Eddie Howe's side are languishing in 14th place following an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures.
Chants of "Eddie Howe's black and white army" may have rung out at various points on Saturday, but the boos at full-time and half-time told their own story.
So can Howe really turn it around after another damaging loss?
"My belief in myself can't waver and it's not," the head coach said.
'A group of players always giving their all'
This may prove Howe's biggest challenge yet on Tyneside.
That is saying something when this is the man who ended Newcastle's 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy by winning the Carabao Cup last season.
This is the man who led his side to Champions League qualification in 2023 and 2025.
This is the man who kept Newcastle up in 2022 after taking over a winless side in deep relegation trouble only a few months previously.
This overall body of work is why Match of the Day pundit Dion Dublin has "no worries" about Howe.
"They hit such heights very quickly in his tenure, where everybody is expecting them to stay there," Dublin told BBC's Final Score.
"With the amount of injuries and stuff that he's had with this squad, it was never going to happen, but it's down to him now to make sure that he gets them back to the levels he's set."
Momentum is against Newcastle, though.
After coming out fighting on the eve of this game, declaring his fire was "burning very strongly", Howe looked glassy-eyed in his news conference following this latest defeat.
Asked if his players had the same fire, he tellingly took a seven-second pause before responding.
"I'm hesitating because I'm speaking on behalf of other people and that's very difficult to do," he said.
"I believe they do. From what I see in the training ground, I don't see any sense of poor attitude or poor commitment to their work.
"I see a group of players that are always giving their all."
Leaky at the back and blunt in the final third
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Bournemouth extend unbeaten run with victory at Newcastle
Rare extended periods on the training pitches are not yielding an improvement in results after a relentless schedule finally eased.
Howe again based his team selection on what he had seen during the week as he named Newcastle's youngest starting XI in a Premier League game since 2005 with an average age of 24 years 191 days.
Although captain Bruno Guimaraes would have started if he was fit enough after recovering from illness and injury, it was still striking that not a single member of Howe's leadership group lined up from the off after Nick Pope, Dan Burn, Trippier and Jacob Murphy were named among the substitutes.
A whopping £124m worth of forwards in Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa also had to make do with places on the bench.
William Osula once again justified that call with his second goal in two games, but Newcastle are an increasingly blunt side lacking aggression, quality and ideas.
They are also leaky at the back - and that is a dangerous combination for all the wrong reasons.
It said it all that even after Newcastle equalised through Osula midway through the second half, Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola told his players "not to panic" from the touchline.
He knew there was still time for another twist as Truffert hooked the ball into the roof of the net late on.
Truffert was one of a series of smart signings Bournemouth made last summer as the club rebuilt superbly following the sales of Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez, Illia Zabarnyi and others.
Newcastle, by contrast, are still reeling from a poor window.
Not only are they failing to see much of a return from a £100m-plus net recruitment drive that Howe was heavily involved in.
Newcastle are still searching for a lasting solution after striker Alexander Isak pushed to join Liverpool last summer.
Over the course of a draining season, Howe has pivoted from Woltemade to Wissa to Anthony Gordon and now Osula, who came mightily close to joining Eintracht Frankfurt on deadline day last September.
It sums up Howe's desperate search for a formula as his future comes under increasing scrutiny.
"It's disappointing when you are not delivering for your supporters," he said.
"That is the ultimate disappointment when you feel you are letting people down who come here and support us.
"If they are critical of us, we have to accept that as that's the game we are in."
£124m spent but Newcastle no closer to striker solution
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