'I was surprised': What shocked Shay Given last night as Newcastle United dropped points at St James' Park
Tottenham Hotspur captain twice rained on Newcastle United's parade as the Argentinian levelled things for the visitors as the two sides shared the spoils at St James' Park.
In terms of quality of the finishes, Cristian Romero's goals were both nice to look at, but in terms of Newcastle's defending of them, they were both an absolute horror show, particularly the second goal, which was practically given a police escort into the back of the net.
They were made worse by virtue of who it was who scored them, as I personally cannot stand Cristian Romero. But it is what it is.
Shay Given was in the Premier League Productions studio last night, and it wasn't the fact that Newcastle twice lost the lead that shocked the former Toon keeper, but there was something that surprised him.
Shay Given was surprised at who took Newcastle's spot kick
Late in the game, Newcastle were awarded a penalty, which has been the topic of many a conversation today, but it was the fact that Anthony Gordon stepped up to take it rather than Nick Woltemade that surprised Given.
“I was surprised that Gordon took it,” he said. Not in a bad way, but Woltemade took the last one in the Premier League and they were sort of passing the ball back and forth.
“I just said, I just hope he doesn’t miss after that. But it’s a really confident penalty from Anthony Gordon.”
We need to see if that Nick Woltemade penalty was a fluke or a skill
The same thought crossed my mind when I saw Gordon standing in the box with the ball under his arm. Nick Woltemade has only taken one penalty for Newcastle, but it was the best penalty I've ever seen, and we need to see if that was a fluke or simply just how good the German is at spot kicks.
However, we do understand that Gordon is the designated penalty taker, and if he's on the field, he's going to take it, and it's not like we can argue with the result, as it was a superbly hit penalty.
We like seeing no-nonsense penalties being taken again. I may be old-fashioned, but I hate these stuttered run-ups, it just makes players look like absolute mules when they miss and that was the case too often when a certain Swede did it for us.
