Time for Howe to take Burn out of firing line

IF NOT for the FA Cup, those connected to Newcastle United would be forgiven for wanting the season to finish tomorrow. It is a shame for the neutral that Amazon’s cameras aren’t capturing this campaign — calves, hamstrings, warts and all. At least once a month, it seems, Eddie Howe is forced to appear for his weekly press conference wearing a crash helmet as well as his club tracksuit. First, there was the Sandro Tonali affair, his £52million marquee signing banned for 10 months for illegal gambling. He then had his club captain, Jamaal Lascelles, caught in a 4am street brawl in which a gang threatened to shoot him. Last Friday it was the Dan Ashworth saga and the likely defection of Newcastle’s sporting director to Manchester United. Howe’s performance in answering those questions was far better than his team would manage 24 hours later. Calm, clever and cutting, he said the club would be just fine without Ashworth and, if he was going, make it quick. Then there are the injuries — broken backs, dislocated shoulders and torn chest muscles. Howe’s players have been tagging each other in and out of the treatment room, and rarely has the list of absentees dipped below double figures. Turbulence off the field and turbulence on it. Saturday was an X-rated re-run of the defensive flaws that, until addressed, render progress impossible. It is one step forward, one to the side and one back. Newcastle are going round in circles, stuck on a leaky spin and conceding goals like never before. The 41 shipped this season is already eight more than during the entirety of the last one. Bournemouth should have won here. They targeted left back Dan Burn and profited when Antoine Semenyo scored the goal to put them 2-1 up in the second half. Burn was substituted and the time has arrived for him to be given a rest. A mistake by keeper Martin Dubravka gifted Dominic Solanke the first goal and the loss of Nick Pope has hit Newcastle hardest. Twenty-six of the goals conceded have come in the 12 games without Pope. It said much that Newcastle’s two best players weren’t really meant to feature this season — Lewis Miley, 17, and Matt Ritchie, 34. The older man salvaged a point in stoppage time with his first goal in nearly four years. Supporters started the game by singing Howe’s name and finished the afternoon with the same chorus. They are behind the manager, but many are perhaps looking forward to the day when this season is behind them and the team they recognise can re-emerge. There is, though, the FA Cup, and a winnable trip to Blackburn for a place in the last eight. While there is that, hope remains that a season to forget could yet become a season to remember. NEWCASTLE (4-3-3): Dubravka 5.5; Trippier 6.5, Schar 6, Botman 5, Burn 5 (Livramento 71min); Longstaff 5.5, Guimaraes 6, Miley 7 (White 90); Almiron 5.5 (Ritchie 90), Gordon 6.5, Barnes 6 (Murphy 67, 5). Scorers: Gordon 58 (pen), Ritchie 90+2. Booked: Schar. Manager: Eddie Howe 6. BOURNEMOUTH (4-2-3-1): Neto 6.5; Smith 6, Zabarnyi 6.5, Senesi 6.5, Kelly 7; Christie 6.5 (Unal 90), COOK 8; Semenyo 7.5 (Ouattara 78), Kluivert (Scott 71), Tavernier 7; Solanke 7. Scorers: Solanke 51, Semenyo 69. Booked: Christie, Senesi, Zabarnyi. Manager: Andoni Iraola 7. Referee: Michael Salisbury 5. Attendance: 52,224.