The 23-year-old American right-back came off the bench to complete the scoring in Saturday’s 2-0 win at Derby County.
Newcastle United defender DeAndre Yedlin has told the Magpies’ official website of his delight at scoring his first goal for the club in Saturday’s 2-0 victory at Derby County.
Yedlin, 23, joined Newcastle from Tottenham Hotspur in August for a reported £5 million fee after spending last season on loan at Sunderland and subsequently made his debut for Rafa Benitez’s side as a late substitute in their 2-0 home win over Brighton & Hove Albion.
The US national team right-back was once again forced to settle for a spot on the bench for the trip to the iPro Stadium after returning from international duty earlier in the week, but he managed to make a big impact after replacing opening goalscorer Yoan Gouffran for the final 17 minutes.
In the first minute of stoppage-time, the pacey American raced into the box to beat Derby goalkeeper Scott Carson to Ayoze Perez’ knock-down before bundling the ball into the back of the net to assure his side of all three points.
There was some initially some uncertainty over whether or not the finish was actually an own goal by Marcus Olsson, but replays promptly confirmed that the former Seattle Sounders youngster had managed to get the final touch.
“It was a great moment,” Yedlin told nufc.co.uk. “I didn’t really know it had gone in until our fans started yelling but it was a great sound to hear.
“Credit to Ayoze for the assist because he took the ball out of the air and played it across perfectly, right into the middle. I tried to get anything I could on it. I don’t know whether I did, or whether it was a Derby player, but the most important thing was it went in.
“I don’t get too many goals so it’s a rare one for me, but it’s a pretty special feeling and hopefully I can score more goals for this club.”
Saturday’s result was Newcastle’s fourth straight shutout win, including the 2-0 EFL Cup victory over Cheltenham Town, and moved them up to second place in the Championship on 12 points – four behind league leaders Huddersfield Town.
After losing their opening two matches of the season, Benitez’s men are finally starting to look like the promotion favourites they were billed as during the summer and now go into Tuesday night’s match at Queens Park Rangers looking to lay down another marker to the rest of the division.
“It’s always hard to go away and seal three points so I’m really proud that we did that against a good Derby team,” Yedlin added to nufc.co.uk. “I think we dominated the game. They had some chances but for the most part we were pretty dominant.
“They had to push more numbers forward, they had to take more risks at the back and the game became a tiny bit easier for us, but to win 2-0 away from home is good and we are now looking forward to Tuesday.”
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