Jacob Murphy is finally ready to show what he can do at Newcastle

Jacob Murphy's ready to show what he can do at Newcastle United '“ after settling into life at St James's Park.
Jacob MurphyJacob Murphy
Jacob Murphy

That’s the verdict of Rob Elliot ahead of Saturday’s home game against Watford.

Murphy was signed from Norwich City in the summer for £12million.

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The 22-year-old made his second Premier League start for the club against Manchester United last weekend.

Murphy showed glimpses of his potential at Old Trafford, where the home side came from behind to win 4-1.

The winger could keep his place against Watford with Christian Atsu still sidelined with a thigh injury.

Elliot believes Murphy, the most costly of Rafa Benitez’s summer acquisitions, has had a lot to get used to since moving to Tyneside – not least his price tag.

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The goalkeeper said: “He’s a young kid, and he had a big price tag coming here, and it’s taken him a little while to settle.

“But he has great ability. He’s a really good lad who works hard.

“And, again, like a lot of our players, he’s young and he’s learning the game at the highest level.

“I thought he did really well.

“Hopefully, this is just the start for him and we see a lot more of him in the future.”

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Murphy, a boyhood Newcastle fan, thanked fans for their support on Twitter after the Man United game.

“Tough game against a top team,” he tweeted.

“Heads up and we continue moving forward together.

“Amazing away support, loud and proud and that showed after the FT whistle.”

Newcastle are 11th in the table after three successive league defeats, while Watford – who could lose Marco Silva, their manager, to Everton – are eighth.

Elliot felt there were a lot of positives to take from the loss at Old Trafford, where Benitez’s side were the better team for the first 30 minutes.

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They took the lead through Dwight Gayle’s first goal of the season.

“We definitely have positives to take into the Watford game,” said Elliot, who suffered a dead leg at Old Trafford. “We’ve gone to Old Trafford and, for 30 minutes, dominated the game with our pace on the counter-attack.

“There’s a lot of positives to take, like Dwight scoring again, Jake (Murphy) showing what he can do, and our threat in general.

“We certainly can’t allow ourselves to get too low.

“We just need to keep our discipline and consistency.

“We’ve had a fair few games this season where they could have gone either way, the only issue at Old Trafford was that their quality told in the end.

“Watford will be another test for us, but one we can go into with confidence, knowing we can cause even the best teams in this division problems.”