Elliot Anderson aiming to ‘refresh’ Steve Bruce’s memory and force himself back into the Newcastle United first-team

Elliot Anderson completed his first full-game since returning from injury last night and managed to grab himself a goal, opening the scoring with a penalty on a disappointing night for Newcastle’s youngsters against Stoke City.

A goal from D’Margio Wright-Phillips, son of former Chelsea and Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, cancelled out Anderson’s opener before goals from Thomas Sparrow and Tyrese Campbell put the visitors in a commanding position.

Adam Wilson’s late strike was not enough to get Newcastle back level.

However, despite the defeat, Anderson admitted to NUFC TV after the game that he was happy to be back on the pitch and aiming to impress Steve Bruce who watched the contest at Northumberland FA last night:

“It felt good. I haven’t played a game for about four months now so it was good to be back out there, running around and trying to help the team.

“It’s good for my confidence playing my first 90 [minutes] and now it’s just about pushing on and getting my fitness levels back to how they were.”

Anderson continued: “I’m just trying to impress like I used to and refresh his memory of what I can do.

“I’m trying to improve the little things like my touches and stuff as I’m playing more and more.”

The striker was on the cusp of the Newcastle United first-team in early 2020 and made his senior debut from the bench against Arsenal at The Emirates.

However, in a cruel blow, he suffered an injury which has kept him out of action ever since.

“Yeah I was gutted. It couldn’t have come at a worse time but it is what it is.” Elliot said.

“I’ve just got to keep working and trying to break through.”

“I saw a specialist about it. We do know what [the injury] is, but it was confusing and I didn’t really want to go down the operation route so I just had to try and manage it and see how it went, luckily it feels ok.”

The Under 23’s make the trip to Fulham on Friday for their next Premier League 2 fixture.

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