Show of team spirit heartens boss
EDDIE Howe has revealed he always tells his Newcastle United players to ‘stand up for each other’ after Kieran Trippier’s team-mates came to his aid against Everton.
Tempers flared just before halftime in Newcastle’s 1-0 win on Wednesday night after Anthony Gordon went down inside the box following a challenge by Dan Burn. Trippier, unimpressed, rushed over to let Gordon know exactly what he thought of his attempts to win a penalty.
A furious Gordon squared up to Trippier before Fabian Schar arrived on the scene and pushed the Everton star repeatedly. Within seconds, there were 17 players from both sides sizing each other up and Nick Pope, Bruno Guimaraes and Amadou Onana were among those who were shoved.
The flashpoint summed up the feisty nature of a niggly contest and Trippier and Jordan Pickford, who are international team-mates with England, were even at each other’s throats as they made their way down the tunnel at the break. Newcastle had to show some fight to win the game and Howe was heartened by how his side did that while keeping their heads.
“Unity is the key word,” he told reporters before today’s trip to Spurs. “I always say to the players that you have to really stand up for each other on the pitch.
“We have to be like a family on the pitch and there for one another in loads of different ways, whether that’s protecting or supporting.
“In that moment, it was a sort of protecting feeling while also keeping our discipline and keeping our control because, in those moments, it’s very easy to lose that. As a group, I always urge them that you have to stay very emotionally level while also having each other’s backs.”