Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe concedes they were flat for defeat at Luton Town.

Newcastle return to action today in the early kickoff against Nottingham Forest.

Howe said: “I have to choose my words carefully… I think we have an incredible group. But I was disappointed with the first-half performance. I felt we needed more.

"We needed more emotion in our performance, we needed more energy in our performance. I'm not I'm not going to sort of say any more than that, really.

“But I think the players felt that as well. I don't think that was just me. I think we were well aware that we were below our levels, and second half was a lot better, but we couldn't force the goal we needed and that mistake in the first half cost us too much."