Allan Saint-Maximin delighted for Newcastle United team-mate after 5-1 win at West Ham

Saint-Maximin assisted his second goal in as many games as he set-up Callum Wilson’s early header against West Ham United as Newcastle ran out 5-1 winners at the London Stadium. Wilson scored again in the second half with Joelinton also getting on the scoresheet twice and substitute Alexander Isak also finding the net.

Saint-Maximin came close to scoring himself but was denied by a fine save from Lukasz Fabianski. The Frenchman also played in Jacob Murphy following a swift attacking move which was thwarted by the West Ham goalkeeper once again.

“Always when I shoot [the keeper] makes a great save!” Saint-Maximin told The Gazette. “That's football but I will keep fighting.

" As I say I don't look at myself, you can see when I get the ball I pass to Murphy, I try to shoot and think about me.

"[Murphy] passed and he gave a good ball to Callum when he could have been selfish and score so I tried to give him a good present for him to score, unfortunately he didn't. It's my mentality not to think about me and I will keep doing that because I'm happy to do that especially when we win.

“It's good [to get assists], people talk about consistency and end product so that's what I give at the moment but it's not my main focus, my main focus is on the team and when we win I'm happy.

"If we want to be in the top four it's the type of game we need to win. We are very happy, especially because we score a lot of goals.”

The 26-year-old went on to praise the strength displayed by Newcastle's squad given the quick turnaround after Sunday’s 2-0 win over Manchester United, where he assisted Joe Willock’s opening goal.

In addition to the result, Saint-Maximin was pleased to see Joelinton back on the scoresheet as the Brazilian netted his fifth and sixth goals of the campaign – equalling his best seasonal goal tally since signing for Newcastle in 2019.

“I feel great but the most important is the team and if you can get assists as well it's good,” Saint-Maximin responded when asked if he feels like he’s getting back to his best.

“I am very happy for the team and very happy for the two goals of Joelinton as well. This was very important for the team but we need to be focused for the next game against Brentford.

“When we see the strength of the team, especially with the players who came on. We have [Anthony] Gordon, Isak, Joe Willock come on and they start games as well so we have an incredible team and we just need to be focused.

"It's tough because there are so many good players and everyone wants to start and some players come on and want to give everything to try and start the next game. It's a good sensation because everyone wants to give everything to be on the pitch and we like that because it pushes us to be even better.”