Callum Wilson showcased his brilliant mentality once lauded by Eddie Howe after he ended his goal scoring drought. The Newcastle United number nine says he should have scored another to ensure the Magpies of all three points against West Ham on Saturday.
The 30-year-old was critical of himself for missing two good chances to put the Toon back in front. Howe previously hailed Wilson's mentality, fighting back from two cruciate ligament ruptures to make the England World cup squad earlier this year.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the World Cup announcement earlier this season, Howe said: "Any player has those moments, those disappointments. I don’t think you will get to Callum’s stage of his career without injuries or moments of adversity.
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“But the key thing is how you respond to that and every time he has been faced with a difficult situation, he comes back stronger and better for it. I think that is the biggest compliment I can pay him.
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“He’s been brilliant for me all through my management career as I’ve managed him, and personally I think he’s an incredible character to have in a squad when you’re going to try and win a cup competition because he has a brilliant mentality to win it.”
Despite United having an early goal chalked off, Wilson showed his clinical nature in front of goal, slotting Sean Longstaff's through ball beyond Łukasz Fabiański into the bottom corner - ending a run of six Premier League games without a goal. Not happy with just the one goal, Wilson felt he should have had at least one more.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Wilson said: "It's disappointing. The second-half we had the majority of the ball, sloppy from us on our behalf to let them back into the game. Overall, it was a frustrating day, especially with the opportunities we had to get the win.
"It's been a while [since he scored]. As a striker you always want to score goals. The manager says to focus on the team but in your mind you're itching to get back on the scoresheet again.
"It's the first time this season a ball like that has been played through, which is nice. It was an unbelievable pass and you get on the end of it and there was only one thing on my mind then and it was to get back on the goal trail.
"I think we probably stopped doing the things that brought us success. We were losing a few 50-50 duels in the middle of the pitch, we weren't pressing as efficient and there were a few errors here and there, sloppy passes and stuff like that.
"We know we've got to be better. Second-half we did that, we just found it a little bit difficult to break them down completely."
Wilson was fed through on goal by substitute Anthony Gordon, one-on-one with Fabianski, but West Ham defender Nayef Aguerd pulled off a brilliant last-ditch challenge to deny the Newcastle striker. The Toon forward then planted a header straight into the hands of the Hammers goalkeeper from a Kieran Trippier set-piece.
"You always look at yourself and what you can do first but I felt I did most things right," Wilson added. WI just literally pulled my foot back to pull the trigger and his foot came from nowhere and in hindsight, I probably should have taken his space away and gone across him, taken it on my left foot, but when you're one-on-one you want to go for your favoured foot really.
"It was a good tackle. Well done to him. The header - frustrating. I'd need to watch it back but I think I jumped when I probably didn't need to an it's taken a bit of power away off the header.
"I think it had just landed on my head and I've got to score."
The general consensus among supporters was that the performance was flat following on from the midweek highs in the Carabao Cup. The Newcastle striker reiterated his side couldn't afford to let any complacency creep in.
"For us as a team, we knew today was going to be difficult," Wilson said. "We had to make sure that we came out mentally in a positive place because you can get complacent, you've got a final that's looming over you and the atmosphere on Tuesday night was so good.
"Today, we thought it could be flat and it's up to us to get the crowd going. We did that early and it just tailed of in our performance really."
Our 48-page Carabao Cup final special is available to pre-order now! Click HERE to get your copy as Newcastle United prepare for a historic day out at Wembley. Also available to purchase through local participating retailers from February 15.
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