Dan Burns sparked a halftime brawl with the Newcastle defender furious over Ben Brereton-Diaz's antics which saw Fabian Schar sent off.
Howe later told Chronicle Live: "We have to grab that sentiment (siege mentality) because the season we finished fourth we had that running through us. We were written off, we were criticised - you name it. There was a lot of stuff thrown at us.
"Then when you get plaudits when you are successful it's dangerous sometimes. You want to feel like you are fighting against the odds. Now I will take that mindset from today against Southampton because we were against the odds. We were fighting to get something from the game."
On the red card, Howe said: "Contact was minimal. It was a harsh sending off, but we’ll learn from it. I think it’s really harsh on Fabby. Although I think we all know that you can’t give the referee the possibility to even give the red card.
"It’s something we’ll learn from, I think our disciplinary record has been good for a long period of time, so I don’t think that’s something that’s in our game."