Newcastle United’s media team today released a great video asking the players what was their favourite moment of the season and Elliot Anderson’s answer, while not unique, certainly had the best response.
As you can imagine, a lot of the Newcastle squad chose very similar moments as their favourite from the recently ended season. Sean Longstaff‘s goals in the Carabao Cup semi-final, the final itself, the 6-1 battering of Spurs and our 2-0 win over Manchester United all got a few mentions, but by far the most popular answer was the moment Champions League qualification was sealed.
The final whistle blew at St James’ Park on a 0-0 draw with Leicester where Newcastle did everything but score. The players all knew that one point was enough to confirm Champions League football next season with a game left to play, and when that whistle blew the stadium erupted.
Most of the squad chose the same moment as their favourite of the season
The celebrations in the stand and on the pitch will live long in the memory of fans and players alike and that’s why so many players singled that out as their favourite moment of the season.
One player who had a double reason to choose that moment was Newcastle’s academy graduate, 20-year-old Elliot Anderson.
After a stunning season on loan at Bristol Rovers under Joey Barton, Anderson started last season with the aim of breaking into Eddie Howe‘s first-team plans.
While he probably didn’t play as much as he’d have liked, Anderson did manage to make 27 appearances in all competitions for the Magpies, grabbing himself one assist on the final game of the season for Anthony Gordon against Chelsea.
Of those 27 appearances only three were as part of the starting XI, and one of those was cut painfully short as it was the fateful game where Nick Pope got sent off against Liverpool and Anderson was brought off for Martin Dubravka to replace him.
Anderson had a dual reason to pick the Champions League qualification
His luck got even worse in the game against Nottingham Forest in March when he had a perfectly good goal chalked off after a bizarre VAR decision.
Anderson kept plugging away, however, and played 77 minutes of the draw with Leicester, so as Anderson picked out that moment as his favourite he said: “There’s a few but I’m going to go with qualifying for the Champions League. Also, for me I was on the pitch for a while so it was a good night for me and a great night for the team”.
It’s clear that Anderson has totally bought into Eddie Howe’s team-first mentality, and hopefully he can now kick on and become an integral part of the side next season.
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