‘A step forward’ - What Eddie Howe told Sandro Tonali after Newcastle United’s 4-0 Crystal Palace win

Goals from Jacob Murphy, Anthony Gordon, Sean Longstaff and Callum Wilson saw Newcastle climb into the European places in the Premier League. Following the goals, Eddie Howe introduced Sandro Tonali off the bench to a warm reception from the supporters at St James’ Park.

The Magpies saw out the 4-0 win with Tonali leading the post-match lap of honour. The 23-year-old midfielder is under investigation for alleged illegal betting offences and could be handed a lengthy ban from football if found guilty.

After the match, Howe advised Tonali to take in the ‘love’ from the Magpies supporters.

“It sort of came to me when we were doing our walk that I wanted him to be at the front, to see the love closer up,” Howe said.

“A big thank you from me to our supporters today. That reception at the end today was incredible and it was emotional.

“He’s going through an incredibly emotional time and the supporters reacted how I hoped they would. I could feel the love between him and them and that will do him the world of good, he’ll feel much better.

“We don’t know what’s ahead for him but a big thank you from me to them.”

Howe revealed before the game that Tonali was in contention to play in the match despite withdrawing from the Italy squad following the investigation probe.

“He very much wanted to play and perform for sure,” Howe added. “There was no decision to make for me, I could see that from how he’s trained so there wasn’t a part of me that went ‘he’s not ready to play football’ it was just about introducing him at the right time and I thought he did well after he came on.

“Hopefully this is a step forward for him to moving forward in his life.”

On the 4-0 win itself, Howe reflected: “It was a really important game today and it can’t be underestimated how tough these games are. Crystal Palace don’t concede a lot of goals, we knew the first goal would be important and thankfully we got that early on.”