Eddie Howe always knew his return to Bournemouth would fiddle with his emotions. Long before masterminding their incredible rise from League Two to the Premier League, there were the days when his mother, Anne, would drive him into training as a 12-year-old at the club’s centre of excellence. His homecoming inevitably stirred memories but at full-time the thoughts at the forefront of his mind centred on Newcastle’s fifth draw in six league matches extending their unbeaten run to 17 games. After all, he has banned his children from talking about the Carabao Cup final.
Naturally, there was a tinge of disappointment but Howe also recognised Newcastle were fortunate to end up with a point, surviving a late fright when Kieran Trippier’s goalline clearance approaching seven minutes of second-half stoppage time denied Dominic Solanke, whom Howe signed for Bournemouth, a late winner. Bournemouth’s players prayed Trippier’s intervention was too late to stop Solanke’s backheel from Hamed Traoré’s cross going over the line, but the referee, Stuart Attwell, checked his watch and replays showed the Newcastle captain did just enough.
At the final whistle Bournemouth fans finally felt able to universally serenade their former manager, their hero. Howe, on his first visit back to this stadium since departing in August 2020, wanted to thank them in return. He applauded the away support and then the home fans singing his name from all four sides, giving them a thumbs up and a wave before heading down the tunnel. “It only really struck me at the final whistle when I sort of knew what was about to happen,” Howe said. “It had been a long wait to thank the Bournemouth fans. I was emotional, I’m not going to lie.”
Bournemouth were reluctant to be too hospitable given their current predicament – they remain the only Premier League team without a win since the World Cup and had lost seven of their previous eight matches – but their matchday programme did refer to Howe’s time in charge of the club, more than a decade across two spells, as the kind of fairytale journey usually only seen on Football Manager. When Howe took over at Bournemouth in 2008, non-league was looming, the club’s existence at peril and he resorted to paying for masseuses out of his own pocket.
Howe was given a warm welcome as he stepped off the Newcastle team bus but the Bournemouth links do not stop with him. His longstanding assistant, Jason Tindall, succeeded Howe before being sacked, and the first-team coach Stephen Purches and the goalkeeping coach Shwan Jalal both played for the club. For Howe, the sight of Tommy Elphick, his captain when Bournemouth won promotion to the top flight in 2015, barking instructions alongside Gary O’Neil in the home dugout will have been bizarre. Matt Ritchie and Ryan Fraser, key players for Bournemouth that season, were among the Newcastle substitutes but Callum Wilson was absent with a minor hamstring problem.
Simon Weatherstone, another fixture of Howe’s staff, sprung into the away technical area as Miguel Almirón cancelled out Marcos Senesi’s opener at the end of the first half. For Bournemouth, a week on from a late defeat at Brighton, Newcastle’s leveller provided another cruel blow. Allan Saint-Maximin kept the ball in play and located Sean Longstaff who galloped into space centrally. Longstaff forced Neto, the Bournemouth goalkeeper given the captaincy this week, into a save but the rebound fell for Almirón to tuck in. Bournemouth could have doubled their advantage moments earlier after Dango Ouattara cut the ball back for Jordan Zemura but the left-back declined to shoot.
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Ouattara, a fizzy 20-year-old winger signed from Lorient last month, was bright throughout and his header helped the ball on for Senesi to deservedly open the scoring after half an hour. Traoré, another January arrival, swung a corner in, Ouattara eluded Trippier to glance the ball towards the back post and Senesi poked home. The second half was relatively stop-start but the substitutes Marcus Tavernier and Anthony Gordon, who replaced Joe Willock after the midfielder was forced off with a hamstring problem, both spurned chances to earn victory.
In the buildup O’Neil acknowledged that Howe’s achievements here required little explaining. But the Newcastle manager has never been one to indulge in the spotlight and the reality is Howe would have hoped for more thrust from his team, especially given Tottenham’s defeat at Leicester afforded Newcastle an opportunity to stretch their legs in fourth. Before Senesi pounced, Solanke forced Nick Pope to paw his awkward glancing header to safety after meeting Jaidon Anthony’s deft cross and Newcastle had to dig in to earn a point. “We weren’t at our best, no doubt about that,” Howe said. “I thought there were some moments from us but the final product was missing.”
