BY G9IJA
Newcastle United might feel like they should have got more out of the game with Leeds today after finishing up with a 2-2 draw and Callum Wilson believes they should have secured the three points for one man.
Callum Wilson continued his goal-scoring run with another brace today against Leeds, both from the penalty spot. That now takes his tally for the season to 17 which is the best return by a Newcastle striker in the Premier League since Alan Shearer got 22 in 2003/04.
However, Wilson believes that Newcastle owed it to Nick Pope to secure the win today after the £10million signing from Burnley made a superb stop from a Patrick Bamford penalty.
Callum Wilson says Nick Pope changed the game with his penalty save
Speaking to NUFC TV at full-time, Wilson was asked what he thought of Pope’s penalty save. “It was unbelievable,” said Wilson. “Pope is a top goalkeeper and he’s one of those that is a game-changer for us. It give us then the platform to build on, gave us that lifeline and we went and did that. Unfortunately, then we couldn’t hold on to that for him.”
Pope might have been unfairly criticised for Leeds United’s opener as he palmed the ball directly into the feet of Luke Ayling, but there should have been at least one Newcastle player between Pope and Ayling to deal with it. Alexander Isak was the man tracking Ayling and he literally stopped and let the Leeds defender run by him. Not exactly his fault as it’s not his job to defend, but still, someone should have picked him up.
Was it two points dropped or one point earned?
There was absolutely nothing Pope could have done about Leeds’ second goal after Rasmus Kristensen’s shot deflected off the upper-body of Kieran Trippier completely changing the ball’s trajectory and leaving Pope flat-footed.
For me, Newcastle could count themselves lucky to have come away with a point. We needed two penalties to score and Pope’s penalty save stopped the game from getting away from us all together. I didn’t see us scoring from open play at all today, we never really looked as dangerous as we can and indeed, should be.
So while Callum Wilson essentially sees it as two points dropped, I see it as one hard-fought point earned.
Newcastle now face Brighton at home on Thursday needing six more points to secure Champions League football