Geordie Maradona handed Player of the Match award as England U21s cruise to victory

Football is a cruel mistress at times, in fact lately for Newcastle United it has been even more cruel because of rules and regulations forcing the club into positions they shouldn't be in.

Profit and Sustainability Rules have meant that Newcastle United, the club with the richest backers in world football, were reduced to selling two future stars in the summer to recoup a £70 million hole in the accounts - something that the PIF could have paid for with the money that fell down the back of their couch.

Instead Newcastle lost promising winger Yankuba Minteh to Brighton and even more annoyingly, local lad Elliot Anderson who went to Nottingham Forest.

Anderson was all primed for hero status at Newcastle thanks to his style of play, battling attitude and the fact that he was one of our own.

Elliot Anderson bagged a goal for England U21s

Nobody wanted him to leave Newcastle, including the player himself, but rules and regulations backed the club into a corner and one of their prize assets had to go.

Fast forward a couple of months and Elliot Anderson has now turned his back on Scotland after representing them at youth level and has joined the England U21 set up.

Last night the Young Lions cruised to a 7-0 victory over Azerbaijan which saw Anderson get his name on the scoresheet playing alongside Newcastle's own Lewis Hall. Anderson swept the ball into the bottom corner from 12 yards for England's fifth of the night.

Elliot Anderson scooped the Player of the Match award

More tellingly for Newcastle fans, though, was how he picked up Player of the Match proving what the Toon Army knew all along - the Geordie Maradona, as he was christened by the Bristol Rovers fans when there on loan, is a special talent.

Injuries kept Anderson from really kicking on in the Newcastle first team, but fans knew it was only a matter of time before he grabbed a spot in the starting XI and kept it before his £35 million move to Forest.

Now we have to watch from afar like that bloke who didn't quite get over his ex and keeps checking her social media and making himself feel worse.

Good luck to Anderson, we're sure it'll not be long before he's in that England first team causing problems. Oh what might have been.