Darren Bent hails star Saint-Maximin, but expresses a concern he still has about Newcastle

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TalkSPORT pundit Darren Bent has hailed Allan Saint-Maximin tonight after his show-stopping performance against Everton for Newcastle.

The French star was at his brilliant best for the Magpies last night, and inspired his team to a huge 3-1 win over the Toffees.

The result has lifted the club out of the relegation zone. And Newcastle are now just a point behind Everton in the table.

It was a fantastic display from Eddie Howe’s side, especially in the second-half.

Saint-Maximin was simply a menace for the Toffees, and he was unlucky to come away from the game with just one assist.

He has rightly been coming in for many plaudits from Newcastle fans, pundits, and neutrals.

If he can play to that level every single game, Newcastle will have absolutely nothing to worry about this season.

Speaking on talkSPORT, former Premier League striker Bent hailed the 24-year-old.

He said at 4:44pm: “Saint-Maximin was ‘Wow!’ What a performance that was. He was unstoppable going past two, three, four players.”

It is difficult to recall a better performance from the former Nice man. It was his best display of the season, and could well have been his best performance since his arrival at the club.

After praising the winger though, Bent did say that he still had concerns about Newcastle defensively.

He added: “I still think Newcastle defensively look a bit dodgy. The two centre-halves, I’m still not sure about them.”

Despite the recent arrival of Dan Burn, Howe elected to pair Jamaal Lascelles and Fabian Schar together last night.

Barring a couple of dicey moments between them, they were fairly solid throughout.

Harsh from Darren Bent – Lascelles and Schar were good for Newcastle against Everton last night

Newcastle may not have kept a clean sheet last night.

But it took a huge stroke of luck for Everton to score their goal, with a goalline clearance from Schar hitting Lascelles and bouncing agonisingly over the line.

That aside though, the pair were really solid last night and restricted Everton to just three shots on target.

Schar did take out Richarlison in reckless fashion at one point. But the Switzerland did a good job and Lascelles showed fantastic character to recover from his own goal.

They’ve had poor games this term, no doubt. But last night that simply wasn’t the case.