'Not good' - Nick Woltemade gives brutally honest assessment of Newcastle United defeat after sublime goal
Nick Woltemade scored his fifth goal in six starts for Newcastle United as his side suffered a 2-1 defeat at Brighton on Saturday.
Danny Welbeck scored either side of a sublime Nick Woltemade finish to see Brighton & Hove Albion secure a 2-1 win over Newcastle United.
Welbeck gave Brighton the lead in the first half before Woltemade levelled the score for The Magpies with 14 minutes of normal time remaining.
The German international made it five goals in six starts for Newcastle and this was arguably the best so far as he flicked Lewis Miley’s low ball into the bottom left corner while facing away from the goal.
Newcastle were pushing for a winner when Brighton punished them in the closing stages as Welbeck struck again eight minutes after Woltemade’s equaliser.
United head coach Eddie Howe named an unchanged side for the third successive match despite seven of his starting line-up going away on international duty, including Woltemade.
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Eddie Howe explains team selection v Brighton
Following the match, Howe said: “I thought we made actually a bright start to the game and looked in a good place initially and then we fell away from that and I think we were loose with the ball today in that first period and we ended up being in transition an awful lot and yeah, we didn't play with our normal clarity on the ball.
“Much better in the second half, much more like ourselves and in the end, we were really disappointed to lose.
“Yeah, that would be a concern for us. We can't rely on any one individual. I think we've always historically been a team that scored a lot of goals. We've had goals from different areas. We've never been reliant on any one player.
“Nick's done really well and we're delighted for him. We wanted to keep scoring, of course, but we need more from the other areas of the team.”
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Nick Woltemade gives honest assessment of NUFC defeat
Newcastle’s three Premier League defeats this season have all been down to late goals.
The Magpies conceded in the 96th minute against Arsenal, the 100th minute against Liverpool and now the 84th minute against Brighton.
Reflecting on the match, Woltemade told Premier League productions: “It's not good. First half, we didn't do good. The second half was good energy in the game. We scored one goal and it felt like we would win but they played good and scored.
“That's football sometimes. The second half was way better than the first.”
Still, Woltemade was focusing on the positives as he continued his strong scoring start to life at Newcastle following his £65million move from VfB Stuttgart.
"I really like to play here,” he admitted. “I get balls; the players are looking for me. The gaffer trusts me.
"In the second half, we had good chances but we lost them in the first half. We didn't have good energy. It's part of football when the ball doesn't want to go in, but it's important we keep working on that.
"Before the national break, we had a good week and today you can see that we can get the game on our side in away games. We will keep working and win games away."