Bruno Guimaraes and Eddie Howe offered a similar verdict on Newcastle United’s 4-3 win over Nottingham Forest.

Bruno Guimaraes admitted Newcastle United “must play better”, despite claiming an important 4-3 win over Nottingham Forest.

It was a tale of two halves at St James’ Park. The Magpies fell behind in the sixth minute to Callum Hudson-Odoi’s strike but scored four goals in 11 first-half minutes to lead 4-1 at half-time.

Lewis Miley netted the equaliser on his first Premier League start in 12 months before Jacob Murphy gave the home side the lead when he bundled home Lewis Hall’s deflected cross.

A penalty was awarded when Ola Aina handled Hall’s delivery, which Alexander Isak successfully dispatched. The Swede then added his second a minute later to bag his 50th Premier League goal.

But a poor second-half almost cost Newcastle victory. Nikola Milenkovic made it 4-2 on the hour-mark before substitute Ryan Yates pulled another back with three minutes of stoppage time remaining.

Guimaraes, like head coach Eddie Howe, reflected on a big win that moved Newcastle up to fifth in the league table, though didn’t hide away from how the second interval unfolded.

The Brazilian wrote on social media: “Three very important points. Very happy about this, but we have to play better, especially when we have the advantage.

“Your support made the difference once again. Howay the boys! Big games ahead, and we keep going together as always.”

Meanwhile, Howe said: “Yeah, of course it's difficult because you want to be the best version of yourselves consistently. But the game is the best game for me, the best for a reason, because of the drama, because of the ability for teams to come back.

“Another challenge that we need to pose each other really as a group is to find solutions in those moments to help the players. That's what I'll go away now and try and figure out.

“It's happened too many times this season where we've been inconsistent game to game, but we've been inconsistent in-game as well. Ultimately we won the game, so I have to be very, very pleased. That was a tough game.

“We knew it was going to be, thought the players were magnificent in their response to conceding. So loads of good stuff to take away and, of course, some stuff to improve.”