Eddie Howe believes Chris Wood scored an ‘important’ goal not only for Newcastle United but also the striker after netting in Thursday’s 2-1 win at Southampton, he told BBC Sport.
The Magpies came from behind to win at St Mary’s and stretch their unbeaten run to nine Premier League games. Stuart Armstrong broke the deadlock for the home side after 25-minutes. But Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men only led for seven-minutes before Wood hit home.
Bruno Guimaraes completed the comeback early in the second-half when the Brazilian hit his maiden Toon goal. Howe awarded the £35m January signing his first start since joining from Lyon with Joelinton absent. The striker-turned-midfielder is managing a groin injury.
Wood also moved to St James’ Park in the winter market to help Howe guide Newcastle to safety. The Toon triggered a £25m release clause to seal his arrival from Burnley following Callum Wilson’s calf injury. But Wood failed to score during his first seven Magpies games.
Howe feels Wood hit ‘important’ goal as Newcastle beat Southampton
Losing Wilson to injury for two-months was a hammer blow to Newcastle’s survival hopes with the forward their lead striker. So, Howe rushed to seal Wood’s arrival and has started the 30-year-old in all of their eight games since. Yet he had failed to score in 630-minutes.
But Wood finally opened his Newcastle account to pull Howe’s side level at Southampton, and set up their win. The Toon boss believes the result was the most important takeaway from the south coast. Yet also notes the significance of the New Zealander finally scoring.
“All I care about is the team,” Howe said. “Obviously, I want individuals in the team to flourish. The goal is important to him and it was a great goal, as well. It came at a time in the game when we needed it, because we had to respond quite quickly to falling behind.”
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