Kieran Trippier’s second-half slip gifted substitute Hwang Hee-Chan a goal to level the score at St James’ Park when Newcastle United faced-off against Wolves.
It’s not often we have cause to write the words “Trippier” and “mistake” together, so I won’t do it now. Wolves’ equaliser just felt typical of the kind of luck Newcastle have had lately. Trippier slipped as he tried to clear the ball out of defence, taking it away from the oncoming Nick Pope and laying it into the path of Hwang Hee-Chan who’d just entered the game 60 seconds previous. It’s the easiest goal he’s likely to ever score.
While the replay showed that it was just rotten luck more than an error by Newcastle’s captain, Trippier wasn’t so forgiving of himself telling Sky Sports at full time: “It’s poor from me, that’s where you’ve got your teammates. They were there to pick me up when I needed it. I’m thankful to Miggy [Miguel Almiron] for putting the ball in the net.”
Trippier wasn’t made to sweat for too long
Wolves weren’t on level terms for long as just nine minutes after they scored, our very own super-sub, Miggy Almiron turned back the clock to October when he was pinging in left-foot curlers for fun. You could see how much it meant to him when he jumped into the crowd to celebrate – the passion in his facial expression and then pointing to the badge on his shirt. Almiron is loving life on Tyneside lately.
Meanwhile, Trippier will have felt a huge sense of relief washing over him seeing that goal go in especially given that it turned out to be the winner.
Trippier: Newcastle’s biggest bargain ever?
Trippier’s full time comments are a another huge indicator as to the togetherness in the squad. Knowing that his teammates are there for him and weren’t about to let him dwell on his (not a) mistake, something that he’s more used to being on the other side of as the team captain.
The England right-back had another excellent game for Eddie Howe‘s men, racking up another assist alongside some brilliant defending. His game was typified by a first half moment when he took a free kick in the final third that was cleared by the Wolves defence and Trippier was there at the other end to break up the counter-attack.
That £12million price tag looks more and more of a bargain after every game.