Eddie Howe is confident Newcastle can put their struggles behind them against Wolves on Sunday. The head coach revealed during his press conference that he is satisfied with this week’s work ahead of the critical fixture saying:

“It’s been a good week in terms of delivery and intensity.

“We’ve been unlucky. I don’t believe in luck, because you create it yourself, but we’ve had an unlucky period when things have gone against us.

“Lots of things are tested behind the scenes on these runs. What is the culture of your group like? What is the culture around the training ground like? It’s a good test of that. So far, the players have come up with the right answers.”

Newcastle’s excellent first half of the campaign, in which they lost just once, has kept them in the Champions League discussion. They are currently sixth with some matches in hand on the clubs immediately above them.

A couple of wins before the international break could put Newcastle into stronger contention ahead of the final 12 fixtures of this match. Howe admitted that the turn around in results needs to happen quickly as he stated:

“Two big games (against Wolves and Nottingham Forest) because of where they are situated.

“We have the international break afterwards and we want to go into that break really in a good moment.

“We’re also running out of games. They are going to go so quickly, 14 left. We need points and we are determined to end this run of games we have had in a confident way.

“And we need to try and maximize every single one of those games and it’s still in our hands.”

Howe has also confirmed that the club plans to head back to Dubai for a warm-weather training camp during the break. These excursions have helped in the past and could again spur a late-season revival.

Howe said the following about the planned trip:

“That’s the plan. We’ll have quite a few players away so I think we’ll have quite a small group, but that is the plan as we currently stand.”

Howe’s full press conference can be watched in the YouTube video below.

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