Cal: Hard work Wil pay off this season
CALLUM Wilson feels Newcastle United are now in a place to compete in the Premier League - thanks to a summer of hard work and a preseason to be proud of.
The Magpies started last season with a 4-2 home defeat against West Ham after a second-half collapse with fitness levels brought into question.
One year on, and after one of the most intense summers at United in years, Newcastle dominated from start to finish against Nottingham Forest in a game Wilson feels they could easily have won 5-0.
When asked about the comparison between fitness in 2021 and 2022, Wilson said: “I cannot disagree.
“You saw a performance by the whole squad against Forest.
“Everybody was still closing down and pressing in the 90th minute.
“It just shows the hard work which has gone on behind the scenes by the players and also credit to the staff who gave us those tasks and got us to this place.”
Wilson knows boss Eddie Howe and his staff better than most after working closely with the Toon boss at AFC Bournemouth.
The England international believes Howe’s project on the ssouth coast is being repeated on Tyneside, only on a bigger scale.
He added: “Nothing changes from my point of view, he is the same, I’m the same.
“He is just in a different working environment and we have a good squad here.
“It is a great football club to be at and there is a great atmosphere.
“With all those things put together they bring a positive outcome.”
United’s 2-0 success against Forest earnedthem their first win of the season with Wilson joking after the game that fans did not have to wait until December for three points this year.
For the Toon No 9 it went well with not just the three points but his first strike of the campaign.
Wilson said: “It was a nice day at the office.
“As a striker,you always want to get off to a goalscoring start and as a team you want to get off to a winning start.
“They both went hand in hand against Forest and we got the three points.
“There were a lot of emotion within the game.
“It was the first game of the season and the fans were excited - and so were the players.
“You are playing against a team for whom the majority of the squad probably had not played in the Premier League before so it was a big occasion for those guys - they ran around with an extra five or ten per cent as well.
“I think the longer the game went on the quality showed and the fitness levels showed.
“We found the right moment to break them down with that goal from Fabian Schar.
“It took something spectacular to make them start coming out of their shells and when they did it should have been four or five goals to us to be honest.”
United had 14 goal attempts in the opening 45 minutes against Forest at St James’ Park but the difference between last year and now was that Newcastle kept going until the job was done.
Wilsona dded: “We were very aware we had had a good first half but it means nothing if you don’t build on it for the second half, the game is 90 minutes long.
“It was important to come out and concentrate when we were tired and try to put all the work we had done together in a full performance in the second half by adding goals to it.
“That is what we did and I think we minimised them to minimal chances.”
Speaking on fitness levels after the weekend win, Howe had said: “Physically, the players were very good. You go through a five-week pre-season, which is what we put the players through and during that time they work incredibly hard.
“You push them to the limits for this day and the season beyond.
“You need the right levels in their bodies and I thought they looked very good today.”