Alan Shearer names the one player who will be “really angry” at Eddie Howe for Brighton defeat

Newcastle United’s all-time leading goalscorer Alan Shearer has described his former team's performance as “all over the place” as they fell to a third consecutive defeat against Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

The Toon struggled to find any cohesion in the game and they were comfortably beaten 3-1 with Irish prodigy Evan Ferguson scoring a hat-trick for the hosts.

Reflecting on the match, Shearer was critical of his team’s performance and claimed that only one player came off the pitch with any real credit.

That player was striker Callum Wilson who scored Newcastle’s consolation goal from the substitutes bench.  The strike was Wilson’s second of the season and his 40th Premier League goal in Black and White which takes him just one behind former striker Les Ferdinand.

Shearer told Premier League Productions: “It’s a really clever finish from Wilson. Just watch the outside of the right foot, the balance. Clever. He sorts of guides it in.”

Wilson has made four Premier League appearances this season, which have all come from the substitutes bench. Shearer added that Wilson will be growing angry with manager Eddie Howe if he is left on the sidelines.

He added: “He would have been really angry with the manager because he’s not started. Not started again and didn’t start the last game. When you’re winning the games, the manager can say ‘no, I’m going to give someone elsewhere the chance or keep going with the team I’ve got’.

“Now that he’s come and scored, he’s got every right to go and bang on the manager’s door and say ‘hang on a minute, play me next game, you have to play me’.

“That’s exactly what he should be doing because other than him, I think they were all over the place. No one could have come off that pitch with any credit, other than him.”

Wilson is currently on international duty with England for their upcoming matches against Ukraine and Scotland. He is hoping to improve on his record of two goals in eight appearances. 

Wilson enjoyed an excellent form at the back end of last season, which saw him finish as the club’s top scorer with 18 league goals. The tally was the highest by any Newcastle player in the Premier League since Alan Shearer’s 22 in the 2003/04 campaign.

Wilson will hope to force his way back into the setup for his side's upcoming test against Brentford on 16 September before their Champions League trip to AC Milan on Tuesday 19 September.

Wilson spoke only about his frustration on the sidelines but claims he is working hard in the background to improve his game.

The former Bournemouth forward said: “In my position at the moment, things aren’t going as planned at the start of the season. So you have to make sure that you’re working even harder to stay hungry to keep improving. 

“That’s what we have to do as a squad and as players, we have to work hard to get to the levels that Man City play at week in, week out, season after season.”