'Didn't do too well' - Eddie Howe's Leeds United reminder to Newcastle and 'admired' Whites man

Leeds and Newcastle will lock horns in a 12.30pm kick-off in West Yorkshire, ahead of which the two clubs are fighting for very different objectives at opposite ends of the table. Second-bottom Leeds are desperate for points in a bid to beat the drop whereas third-placed Newcastle are within touching distance of sealing a Champions League qualification spot.

Howe, though, has signalled a warning to his side about what they will face under a Leeds manager he has an admiration for in new Whites boss Sam Allardyce whilst also highlighting a reminder about how the Magpies fared in their last lunchtime kick-off. Newcastle have won eight of their last ten Premier League games but suffered a 3-0 reverse in a lunchtime kick-off at Aston Villa last month which remains clear on Howe’s mind.

“The early kick offs are interesting things,” said Howe at Friday’s pre-match press conference. "We didn't do too well with the last one we had against Aston Villa which was a difficult game for us as we have commented on since.

"But I think we will look forward to this game. We know it's going to be a great occasion, a great atmosphere. Elland Road is a brilliant place to play so we look forward to that.

"But we need to be ready for what's going to come. It's going to be an intense atmosphere and it's going to be a really important start to the game. I think those first 15, 20 minutes will have a huge impact on what is going to happen afterwards."

Howe, 45, is 23 years Allardyce’s junior and Allardyce had already been in management for 17 years when Howe took up his first job at Bournemouth back in 2008. Asked about Allardyce – and if the new Leeds manager was someone he looked up to or admired when starting out in management – Howe declared: "One hundred per cent.

"I was coming into the Premier League with Bournemouth so we had challenges to try and establish ourselves in the Premier League, huge challenges and Sam would have felt the same thing going into the Premier League as he did.

"He did it in a slightly different way to us, a different style of play. But that doesn't take away the achievement that he made. He made Bolton and other clubs that he has been at a place to fear going, no one wanted to go and play there.

"They had their way of doing things and a lot of the teams couldn't cope with that so you admire anyone who produces that kind of team and he did it very cleverly. It wasn't luck with what he did, he strategically planned it and then the players executed it really well so fair play to him and his career. You look at the clubs he has managed and he has got a great CV."

That CV currently features just the one game in charge of Leeds but Howe says he knows excatly what to expect both from last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester City in Allardyce’s first Leeds game at the helm and his work with other teams during his career.

Reflecting on Leeds’ 2-1 defeat at Manchester City last weekend, Howe reasoned: "I think we saw enough to say that that's going to be what Sam's going to give the team. So a clear organisation, a clear structure, a definite philosophy in and out of possession. So for us watching it tactically back you could see the impact he's had on the team in a very short period of time.

"They're going to be tough to play against, they're going to ask questions of our back four, and we need to find the answers to those. Set plays are going to be a big threat - they're going to be very potent in that area of the game - so again we're going to have to be good, as we have been for the majority of the season in that respect.

"It'll be, I think, a totally different test to the one it could have been a couple of weeks earlier. This will have parallels to the Everton game in terms of Leeds will have a lot of similar strengths to the Everton game, the crowd potential will be similar.

"But the key thing about that game is we got the first goal and we were very good in certain aspects of our defending in that match so I think that's the game we have to look at and try and mirror that performance really."

Asked if it presented a challenge having just one game to study of Leeds under Allardyce, Howe pondered: "I think we have historical evidence of how Sam plays as well. I think you would look at his teams down the years, they have always been very, very difficult to play against and they have always had a clear way of playing so have gone back and looked at certain things and they'll be no surprises I don't think for us in terms of what's going to come. Playing against that and trying to find ways to beat that is always the difficult part. But that's what we have tried to do."