Stand-in Newcastle boss Jason Tindall has told Eddie Howe to concentrate on getting better after guiding the club into third place in the Premier League.
Number two Tindall was placed in temporary charge at St James’ Park at the weekend with Howe being treated in hospital for pneumonia, and on Wednesday he added a 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace to Sunday’s 4-1 win against Manchester United to edge the Magpies closer to Champions League qualification.
They head for a potential crunch clash with Aston Villa in the Midlands on Saturday with Howe’s side-kick happy to take on the responsibility of drawing up a masterplan.
Tindall said: “We had to do the preparation all last week ourselves because obviously Eddie was in hospital and he needed to rest and recover, so we had minimal contact, and that’s been the same for preparations for this game and the remaining games whilst he’s not here.
“The last thing Eddie needs or wants is the stress of having to think about football and tactics and everything else that he would need to try to manage from home because that won’t get him better in a quick enough period.
“We know the expectations, we know the demands, everybody. We’ve been working together now 17 years, so we know each other like clockwork, we know what’s expected to be able to go out there and deliver performances that we pride ourselves on.”
Tindall and coach Graeme Jones were once again able to stand back and admire the fruits of their labour as Newcastle negotiated a potentially difficult game against the Eagles in impressive style.
Jacob Murphy’s early strike was reward for a strong start and after the visitors had shot themselves in the foot when Eberechi Eze had a poor penalty saved by Nick Pope, they made the pressure tell.
Marc Guehi’s own goal and further strikes from Harvey Barnes and Fabian Schar had the game won by half-time, with Alexander Isak’s 25th of the season wrapping up the rout.
When it was suggested to him that management was easy, Tindall said with a smile: “I’m not sure about that.
“It’s certainly not easy. But the lads have gone out and delivered two excellent performances in the space of a few days and I’m delighted with that.”
It proved a sobering evening in the north-east for Palace boss Oliver Glasner and his players as they attempted to bounce back from Saturday’s 5-2 defeat at Manchester City.
Asked what had gone wrong, Glasner said: “Everything, to be honest, everything went wrong.
“Credit to Newcastle for their performance, they just showed what they showed against Manchester United three days before, this pace, this directness, this energy.
“We couldn’t compete with this from the beginning. There was maybe one moment when we could have got back into the game and obviously this didn’t work and two or three minutes later, we have an own goal.”
