‘We don’t want to be that team’ – how can Newcastle cure travel sickness?

Newcastle United players certainly looked the part as the team bus pulled up outside Molineux earlier this month.

The squad emerged from the coach wearing re-released replica away shirts from the ‘Entertainers’ era, when the Magpies strutted into stadiums up and down the country.

But the visitors did not play with quite the same swagger of Kevin Keegan’s free-scoring 1995-96 side.

In fact, Newcastle did not muster a first shot on target until the 85th minute in a goalless Premier League draw against bottom club Wolves.

It was a familiar story.

Travel-sick Newcastle have won only three away games in all competitions this season.

That dire record has to change – and fast – as Eddie Howe’s men travel to the Parc des Princes, Anfield and Etihad Stadium in the space of just 10 days.

Yet could one of the toughest runs in the club’s recent history bring the best out in them?

“Sometimes, the bigger the game and the harder the challenge, the more you have to rise to it,” said Newcastle head coach Howe before Wednesday night’s Champions League match at Paris St-Germain.

Newcastle certainly need to start delivering on their travels.

Such a patchy run of results on the road has only increased their reliance on home comforts.

Teams always tend to be stronger in their own stadium, but there are those inside the Newcastle dressing room who believe St James’ gives them an extra 10% when it’s at its febrile best.

However, it might even be a higher percentage than that – Newcastle have a 62% win rate on Tyneside compared to just 21% in away games this season in all competitions.

Newcastle may have lost against Aston Villa on Sunday, but only four sides have picked up more points (23) at home than Howe’s men in the Premier League this season.

Just three teams have scored more goals (22) than them on their own turf in the top flight.

Three of Newcastle’s four wins in this term’s Champions League have come at St James’, while the holders reached the Carabao Cup semi-finals following three straight home victories.

Remarkably, even when they were 3-2 down against Leeds United in the 90th minute a few weeks ago, the hosts still managed to win the game following an incredible stoppage-time turnaround on Tyneside with two goals.

Defender Sven Botman admitted it was “hard to tell” why Newcastle have been unable to deliver more of those victories away.

“You ask yourself and your team-mates,” he said. “The results haven’t been great away from home this season and we definitely want to change that.

“It’s hard to put a finger on what the reason is.

It is clear where the issue lies.

As relatively solid as Botman and Newcastle have tended to be at the back, only Wolves and Sunderland have scored fewer Premier League goals (10) away from home than Howe’s men.

They have averaged just 1.2 goals per game away compared to exactly two per match at St James’ in all competitions.

They have also had two fewer shots and around eight fewer touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes on their travels.

No wonder, then, Nick Woltemade, Harvey Barnes and Anthony Gordon have each scored just three goals away this season, while Yoane Wissa and captain Bruno Guimaraes have only bagged one apiece.

Many months have passed since Alexander Isak’s painful departure to Liverpool, but Newcastle still appear to be adapting to life after the striker, whose movement in behind was crucial to how the side played, particularly on the road, when they hurt teams on the counter.

Nearly half of Isak’s 27 goals for Newcastle last season came away from St James’, including a decisive strike in the Carabao Cup final as the club lifted major silverware for the first time in 70 years.

Yet that is easier said than done.

There is a belief internally that there have been times on the road this season where Newcastle have been dragged into the games the opposition wanted rather than imposing their own style on them as planned.

As much as it has been influenced by the need to pick their moments to aggressively press during a relentless schedule, they have, on average, had more of the ball and more 10-plus open play passing sequences per game this season.

But Newcastle have not always made the most of all that possession, and they failed to find a breakthrough in the goalless stalemate against Wolves earlier this month despite having 67% possession of the ball.

Toothless Newcastle’s pass completion rate of 94% in the first half at Molineux was the highest any Premier League team has registered in a half without hitting a shot on target.

Howe’s side have often lacked the guile to find a way through a low block, which then feeds into their main issue on the road – a lack of goals.

As season-ticket holder Adam Stoker observed, it is rather telling that on the rare occasions Newcastle scored inside two minutes, the visitors went on to beat both Everton and Burnley – even if the latter success was far from straightforward.

“When we play against teams at home who do sit in a bit more, the crowd can get the players over the line,” he said.

“Whereas, against Wolves away, when they were the ones sitting, and their crowd got behind them, that helped them.

“It feels like we’re able to play slightly differently at home than we are away. We just look a bit of a different beast.”

It has got to the stage where Howe has tried to move the focus away from where a game is taking place with his players.

Rather than overthinking the venue, he has instead called on his side to simply attack each fixture – regardless of where it is played.

Starting with Wednesday’s trip to the holders in Paris.

“There’s rightly been a lot of questions asked about our away form and our ability to handle pressure, to be resilient in times where we’re not the dominant team,” added Howe.

“We probably haven’t done that well enough this year and then, of course, when you get the moments, you need to show your quality the other way,