As they were out of Europe and were 10th in the Premier League, they knew that the previous season's achievements (top four) were improbable.
Per Chronicle Live, Howe said: "We are determined to give it our all and finish as high as possible. With 10 games to go we had to reset our targets.
"Since the international break, you have seen a general improvement on performances. We need to keep that going for the last three games."
On the rest of the season, he added of his sixth placed team: "I think with three games to go, you just want to give our best. We want to try to play with the energy and intensity.
"We looked really good physically and there was a lot of pace in our team, if you have those qualities you can give any team a difficult afternoon.
"Our away form has been inconsistent so it is really good to see us win on the road. We're in there fighting for those places, it gives us a much better position than before the game. Now we go into a tough three-game week, starting with Brighton."