Andy Carroll made his long-awaited return for Newcastle United as they recorded a draw against Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday evening.
Brighton manager Graham Potter has claimed that Newcastle United fans acted like they scored a goal when Andy Carroll was brought onto the pitch during their goalless draw on Saturday.
Boyhood Newcastle fan Carroll returned to the club this summer, but because of fitness issues, he only made his second debut for the club yesterday.
Brighton were the better team on the day, and there’s no doubt when Carroll was brought onto the pitch, it gave the home team a lift, but they couldn’t make full use of it.
Speaking to Sky Sports Football (21/09/2019 at 7:40 pm), Potter claims that the noise generated by Newcastle’s fans when Carroll came on was like they had just scored.
“That’s the beauty of the Premier League,” Potter told Sky Sports. “You can do so well, and one action or one moment can outdo you. That’s the test of it.
“Andy Carroll comes on, you can see the environment completely changes, even though we were doing quite okay in the game. He comes on and he lifts the crowd. It likes they scored almost with the noise [they made] so that’s a challenge as well and we believe we did it well.”
Carroll’s return and his fitness levels over the season could be crucial to Newcastle’s chances of staying in the Premier League this season.
Whilst he has had his injuries problems for a long period now, when he has been on the pitch, he has proven to be a problem for a lot of opposition.
Joelinton has started up front for Newcastle since the start of the campaign and it remains to be seen whether Bruce will play them as a two, or stick with just the one upfront.
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