Eddie Howe rues Newcastle's 'painful' stoppage time defeat to Man City

Eddie Howe was impressed with Newcastle's performance against Manchester City despite losing 3-2, but admitted his side 'ran out of steam'.

The Magpies are reeling from three consecutive Premier League defeats after squandering their lead against City at St James' Park on Saturday.

Goals from Alexandar Isak and Anthony Gordon cancelled out Bernardo Silva's stunning opener before City responded through a Kevin de Bruyne equaliser and Oscar Bobb's stoppage time winner.

Howe described the defeat after the match as 'very, very painful' and explained Newcastle just 'couldn't deliver' in the second half.

'There was so much promise and so many good things, so to be sat here with nothing is very, very painful,' Howe said.

'The lads have given so much physically in that game. The first half was everything that we want to be. We wanted to be aggressive and front foot. When you do that, you take risks, but those risks were worth it.

'You could see that it paid off at the other end. We still wanted to do that in the second half, we still wanted to play the same way, but we just couldn't deliver that in the second half,' he added.

Howe continued to explain that his players were unable to maintain their same energy levels shown in the first half for the remainder of the match as City rallied late on.

Newcastle are one of a number of Premier League teams that have been ravaged this season and the differences in the strength of both teams benches came to fruition late on.

'I thought we looked a really good team just probably ran out of gas in the second half. It looked like we had done enough with three minutes left but we just couldnt do it,' Howe told BBC Sport.

'That is just my first thought [energy]. We are limited from the bench at the