Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has claimed his players are ready if the Champions League qualification battle goes down to the wire.
The Magpies fought back against Leeds United and came to within 15 minutes of completing the comeback at Elland Road until Rasmus Kristensen's deflected effort secured a much-needed point for the relegation-threatened side. Manchester United restored a four-point gap over Liverpool thanks to their 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers ahead of the Reds' trip to Leicester City on Monday.
Both Newcastle and Erik ten Hag's side will have played a game less by the end of the encounter at the King Power Stadium offering a slight advantage going into the final two games of the Premier League season.
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The Toon Army currently sit third in Howe's first full season at St James' Park and he firmly believes circumstances are still in their hands.
"Every time we play at home is an opportunity to win because of the conditions, the arena, the support, the confidence," he said. "We’ve done really well at home this season. We love to play there.
"We go into those two games with belief we can get the job done but it’s never that easy, and that showed today. Leeds, with a new manager and style of play that is very difficult to play against, and a crowd that were in the game made it a really tough match for us.”
"We have to be very positive. We’re disappointed not to win today. It was a great chance for us with the lead and not long left in the match but we have to accept what happened," he added.
"It’s still in our hands, we have three huge games to come. Sometimes you have to take yourself back to the start of the season and what we would have thought to be in this position now.
"Everyone at the club would have taken that. It’s in our hands and we have to be very positive about what’s ahead.
"Possibly. Who knows? It’s difficult to predict anything in football," he said when asked if he the race for European qualification will go down to the wire. "You saw that today. We’re prepared for that if it does. That will be what we have to do."
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