'Incredible!' – Jason Tindall blown away by Newcastle United fans

Howe and Jason Tindall, his assistant, brought Bournemouth to St James’s Park four times – and they have experienced it first-hand.

But the relegation-threatened club's new head coach wasn’t able to experience their backing on Saturday for his first game in charge of the club.

Howe, handed a two-and-a-half-year deal, missed Saturday's 3-3 draw against Brentford after testing positive for Covid-19 on the eve of the game.

The 43-year-old, appointed as Steve Bruce’s successor during this month’s international break, had to watch from his hotel room. Howe – who was in “constant” communication with the bench – saw on TV the “Eddie Howe’s black and white army” banner which was made by Wor Flags.

Tindall was asked about the atmosphere after the Premier League game.

“It was incredible,” said Tindall. “Every time we’ve been here as opposition, you can only admire the stadium and the amount of people that come here every home game.

“All I can say is ever since we’ve been here, how welcome we’ve been made to feel by the players, the staff and all the fans that we’ve seen around the town.

“You saw how important they are to the team. They really got behind the team. It was an incredible atmosphere, and we know how important they’re going to be for us in the future.”

Howe remains in isolation, though Tindall suggested after the Brentford game that he could be back for Saturday’s fixture against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. In the meantime, Tindall and Graeme Jones, with input from Howe, will prepare for the team on the training ground.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the result we wanted,” said Tindall. “We wanted to win the game and set up to win the game.

“But we’ve obviously conceded three goals, and we were disappointed with them. We’ll look at those collectively and individually, and we’ll need to put them right on the training ground.”

Winless Newcastle are bottom of the Premier League with five points from 12 games. The club is five points adrift of safety.

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