Steve McClaren has lauded Sunday’s matchwinners Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ayoze Perez, after the pair emerged from the substitutes bench to fire Newcastle to an extraordinary 2-1 victory over Spurs at White Hart Lane.
Newcastle trailed 1-0 to Eric Dier’s first half goal with 20 minutes left and, despite a vastly improved second half display, the Magpies had failed to threaten the Tottenham goal. Cue the arrival of precocious young talents Perez and Mitrovic, who were thrown on by McClaren in a desperate attempt to salvage something from the game.
The former England manager’s gamble immediately paid off, as Mitrovic made an instant impact by poking in from close range in the 74th minute following a well worked Newcastle set piece. At that point, Newcastle would have settled for a vital point against a Spurs’ side that were unbeaten in their last 14 Premier League games. However, Ayoze Perez had other ideas.
The Spain u21 international combined with Mitrovic deep into stoppage time before latching onto the Serbian’s headed flick-on in the Spurs’ penalty area. With the angle narrowing and Perez running at pace, the danger appeared to be minimal, but, somehow, the technically gifted youngster took Hugo Lloris by surprise by squeezing a sharp volley below the Spurs’ goalkeeper to secure a magnificent away triumph and send the travelling Toon Army into a state of sheer ecstasy.
The victory was Newcastle’s second in successive weeks following last weekend’s home triumph over Liverpool, and the invaluable three points saw the Magpies climb out of the relegation zone heading into this weekend’s crunch bottom-of-the-table clash with Remi Garde’s stricken Aston Villa side.
McClaren was elated with his side’s impressive second half turnaround at The Lane, and the 54-year-old reserved special praise for the Magpies’ supersubs Mitrovic and Perez
Speaking to The Chronicle, McClaren said: “All you ask for from players is to give a response.
“If you’re on the bench, you want an impact. In the last two weeks Ayoze and Mitro have not played so they’re disappointed.
“But you can be disappointed and come on and not perform, but they were disappointed but came on and showed they wanted to play.
“Changed the game – well not changed the game as I thought we were growing into the game anyway, but they’ve won the game for us.
It shows what an immense talent they are, both of them. They’re still inexperienced, and that has shown this season, but this will do them both and the team a world of good.
McClaren was keen to keep his feet on the ground following Sunday’s magnificent comeback victory, and the Magpies’ head coach is desperate to see his rejuvenated side maintain their momentum by stringing together a run of results to pull away from the drop zone:
“In football you’re only one week away from going back down, we’ve got to make sure we don’t do that.
“You know at Newcastle, you’re only two days away from another crisis so it’s important we keep our feet on the ground.
We’ve not turned the corner, there’s been two excellent performances and results. We said afterwards: ‘That’s what we are. Against Liverpool, that’s what we are, that’s what we want to be. Spurs; that’s what we are, that’s what we want to be. But we’ve got to be this every week.
“That only comes from a platform and bed of hard work, attitude, commitment and discipline. The players did that, and when they do we’ve got a chance of winning games.”
