Newcastle United star shames Aston Villa for ‘incredible’ thing he saw at St James’s Park

The 30-year-old hadn’t scored a Premier League goal against Villa in his career, but was given a golden opportunity to break the deadlock at St James's Park after Ashley Young handled the ball inside the penalty area. Wilson stepped up and converted from 12-yards before adding a second with a header in the second half.

Ahead of the match, Wilson had been doing his research in the event he would have to take a penalty. Though that went out of the window when Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was withdrawn due to a suspected concussion and replaced by Robin Olsen.

“I hadn't had a penalty this season, it was my first penalty,” Wilson said on the Footballer’s Football Podcast. “I've been waiting to have one hit the back of the net and I'd done all my research based on Martinez being in goal so I thought this is who I'm going against and I knew I was going to go down the middle against him.

"Then the goalkeeper changed and I was like 'aah, now what!' I thought just don't change where you're going to go, just commit to it. 99% of the time, goalies will dive.

"My next penalty I'm probably going to have to go with a corner, or it might be down the middle again you never know they might be listening!”

Wilson’s penalty came in the sixth minute of added time at the end of the first half with 10 minutes added in total. This was partly down to Martinez going down twice before finally being withdrawn.

The decision to keep the goalkeeper on the field after an initial blow to the head has been criticised. The match lacked any real flow in the first half and Wilson felt that was down to the frequent stoppages and alleged ‘time-wasting’ from Villa.

He added: “That moment in the game we needed a goal and it was important to break the deadlock because the time-wasting was incredible so it helped us really get [Aston Villa] out of their holes and their pockets and get playing the game.”

Newcastle went on to win the game 4-0 with further goals from Joelinton and Miguel Almiron.