Wood showed us his worth, says delighted boss Howe
EDDIE Howe says he was pleased to see Chris Wood accept ‘responsibility’ and take Newcastle’s matchwinning penalty against Wolves.
The £25million striker scored his first goal for United at St James’ Park as he helped the Magpies to a 1-0 victory that gives their survival hopes a huge boost.
Having notched just once in 11 games before Friday night, the New Zealander has not found it easy since moving from Burnley in January. But the 30-year-old showed why Newcastle turned to him to boost their survival bid when he fired the ball past Jose Sa, who had fouled him just moments earlier.
Other candidates including Joelinton, Jonjo Shelvey, Allan Saintmaximin and Fabian Schar were on the pitch at the time but Howe was happy to see Wood grab the ball.
The head coach said: “The thinking is he’s a centre-forward, he’s a
goalscorer, he wants to score and I always trust my players. If they want the penalty and he’s in that position, then he gets it and I’m really, really pleased that he did.
“He wants that responsibility. If you come to a club like this, you need to have broad shoulders and I think he has since he’s come in.”
Howe never showed any signs of changing his frontman despite some concern from fans and pundits over his lack of goals.
With Callum Wilson out, Dwight Gayle is the only other senior outand-out striker on the books but exbournemouth boss Howe has stuck with the £25million man.
He said: “I’ve spoken very, very highly of him in several different moments and I’ve said every word honestly and how valued he is to me and the team. But he needs to score, as a centre-forward here, you need to score so I’m really, really pleased.”
Howe felt the decision to step up showed a lot about Wood’s character, not least after he had watched a goal be chalked off for an offside.
“He was really challenged tonight because the goal, we thought, was a good goal, as everyone did in the stadium, and then it’s cut away from him, and he must at that moment think, ‘Come on, when’s it’s coming?.’ He gets the penalty, he has to wait. There’s a lot of pressure on his shoulders, but he struck the penalty really well.
“That was a big, big thing for him.”