Wilson seals Newcastle comeback win to push Southampton closer to drop
Wilson #Wilson
It is safe to assume Callum Wilson does not regard April as the cruellest month. At the end of March the England striker looked thoroughly out of sorts but eight goals in seven games over the past four weeks have confirmed his post World Cup slump is well and truly over.
Wilson’s introduction as a half-time substitute transformed a match that had begun badly for Newcastle but concluded with Eddie Howe’s third placed side set apparently fair for the Champions League. Southampton, meanwhile, remain well and truly stuck to the bottom of the Premier League.
It was the sort of grey, rainy, chill Tyneside day which felt more like November than the eve of May but the weather proved the least of Howe’s problems.
Newcastle may have scored 10 goals in their previous two games against Tottenham and Everton but they were a goal down at half-time after Stuart Armstrong lashed Kamaldeen Sulemana’s low cross beyond Nick Pope from the six yard radius at the end of a smart counterattack.
Carlos Alcaraz’s advances had caused Howe’s team sporadic problems form kick-off and, once Roméo Lavia had dispossessed Bruno Guimarães, Alcaraz played a prominent role in initiating a move which, albeit briefly, suggested that relegation was not necessarily inevitable for Rubén Sellés’s side after all.
Very shortly before that breakthrough Howe had instructed his wide forwards, Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon to swap wings in a re-jig also involving Joelinton and Joe Willock exchanging midfield positions.
Whether or not this revamp prompted the “systems failure” prefacing Southampton’s goal, Howe restored Murphy to the right at outset of the second half while also replacing Gordon with Wilson.
Wilson equalises for Newcastle during the second half. Photograph: Serena Taylor/Newcastle United/Getty Images
While Gordon had frequently enjoyed waltzing past Lyanco, the former Everton winger’s final ball had consistently let him down. Such frustration was only compounded when an unmarked Gordon missed Newcastle’s best chance of the first half, directing a shot against the outside of a post after being sent clear courtesy of Alexander Isak’s stellar through ball.
With Wilson introduced at centre forward Isak switched to the left where he proceeded to unnerve a hitherto impressively resilient and ambitious Southampton.
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It was perhaps no coincidence that it was Isak’s low cross which precipitated Wilson guiding the equaliser beyond Alex McCarthy with the accomplishment of a striker scoring his seventh goal in seven games.
Wilson had another “goal” disallowed for offside following a lengthy VAR review before an own goal from the substitute Theo Walcott following a Kieran Trippier corner gave Newcastle the lead.
When Wilson met an incisive pass from the increasingly influential Joe Willock he delighted in rounding McCarthy before sliding yet another goal into the empty net.