Newcastle gave their fans a glimmer of hope with a promising performance in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United earlier this week.

The Magpies are 19th in the Premier League and have won just once in the top flight at the midway point of the campaign, having picked up just 11 points all season.

It will be a tough ask to avoid relegation from here, but an inspired showing against the Red Devils showed what they are capable of when they are at their best.

Howe must work his magic

One player who impressed on Monday night was Sean Longstaff. He has struggled to kick on since coming through the academy setup but was given an opportunity by Eddie Howe to catch the eye and duly grasped his chance with both hands.

As per SofaScore, he won three of his five ground duels and made two tackles and one clearance. He also completed two of his three long pass attempts, created one chance and put in plenty of hard work across the middle of the pitch.

What Howe needs to do now is work his magic on Longstaff to ensure that the 24-year-old is now able to sustain a run of form and show that he has the quality to be a consistent starter at Premier League level.

In December 2019, Transfermarkt valued him at a whopping £19.8m. This came after he made nine Premier League appearances in the 2018/19 campaign, scoring one goal and providing one assist, before playing 23 games the following season. He averaged an impressive WhoScored rating of 6.86 in his debut top-flight campaign, showing glimpses of his potential at the top level.

Since then, though, he has failed to average a seasonal score higher than 6.46 in the Premier League across two-and-a-half campaigns. At the time of writing, Transfermarkt value him at £11.7m, which means that his value has plummeted £8.1m in just two years, illustrating his drop-off in form and failure to capitalise on a strong start to his career.

Howe now needs to do whatever he can on the training pitch to get Longstaff back to the levels that he showed in the 2018/19 campaign. His performance against Manchester United this week was a strong start, but he now needs to show greater consistency.

The Magpies manager must work his magic to give the 24-year-old the best chance of being able to become a regular in the Newcastle side, or else his market value may continue to plummet...

AND in other news, Newcastle lightweight who was dribbled past four times let Howe down badly on Monday night...