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Lee Ryder

Allan Saint-Maximin discusses 'presents' he wants to give to Newcastle United team-mates

Not since his thunder volley at Molineux has Allan Saint-Maximin tasted the sweet moment of hearing the ball hit the back of the net for Newcastle United.

That day Hee-Chan Hwang's hasty clearance fell right into the path of Saint-Maximin on the edge of the box and he caressed the ball into the bottom corner of the net with superb first time strike. It was a goal that left Portuguese goalkeeper Jose Sa with no chance as he stood rooted to the spot.

Saint-Maximin tried his best to race to the dugout on a sunny August afternoon but knew he'd picked up a muscle injury chasing back for to defend earlier in the match. And since then chances have came and gone for the winger - not least in the Carabao Cup final when a game-changing save from David de Gea denied him at Wembley against Manchester United.

READ MORE: Eddie Howe's 'frightening' Newcastle United message to the rest of the Premier League

The French star is getting back to his brilliant best for Newcastle and in a week which saw him pile the agony on West Ham and resulted in his manager insisting he won't be sold this summer, Saint-Maximin came close to finally getting back on the scoresheet. This time he would be denied by Lukasz Fabiański.

Reflecting on his quest for goals, Saint-Maximin said: "Always when I shoot the keeper makes a great save! That's football but I will keep fighting.

"As I say I don't look at myself, you can see when I get the ball I pass to Jacob Murphy, I try to shoot and think about me.

"For example, Jacob passed and he gave a good ball to Callum Wilson (to make it 3-1) when he could have been selfish and scored himself so I tried to give him a good present for him to score later in the game, unfortunately, he didn't.

"It's my mentality not to think about me and I will keep doing that because I'm happy to do that especially when we win."

Assists have been the name of the game for Saint-Maximin in the last two matches though. Saint-Maximin floated in a wonderful cross for Wilson to head home at West Ham just days after his knockdown for Joe Willock against Man United.

Saint-Maximin reflected: "It's good [to get assists], people talk about consistency and end product so that's what I give at the moment but it's not my main focus, my main focus is on the team and when we win I'm happy."

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