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Andros Townsend ‘All that stuff pays off…when you help your team get 3 points’

8 years ago
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Andros Townsend scored Newcastle’s first direct goal from a free-kick in over 27 months on Saturday but it was no fluke.

The United winger says that he used his free time productively at Tottenham and used to practice his set-piece delivery for a couple of hours after training ended- with the player frozen out of the first team picture,

Andros Townsend must have had mixed emotions last night as his former Tottenham team-mates ended their title hopes with a second half collapse at Stamford Bridge.

However, the Newcastle player has certainly seen his own personal career well and truly kickstarted again on Tyneside, with now four goals and two assists from just 10 Premier League starts.

It was appropriate that Andros Townsend delivered that free-kick beyond the Palace keeper, as Saturday also marked the first return to St James Park of Yohan Cabaye – the last Newcastle player to score a league goal direct from a free-kick in his final appearance for United at West Ham in December 2014.

Townsend admits that Newcastle found Saturday a struggle to create any decent chances and the margins fell down to his glorious free-kick and Yohan Cabaye’s saved penalty.

Andros Townsend insists that England and the Euros (a cracking 5/1 available on Townsend making the squad) is far from his mind but considering the form he is in playing for a bottom four team AND the fact rivals such as Theo Walcott (no PL start for nine weeks) and Raheem Sterling (three PL starts in three months) are not even getting a game….

Considering that Townsend hadn’t played a full 90 minutes in the Premier League for almost two years at Spurs, it is remarkable the job he has done so far at Newcastle.

Let’s hope he can finish the job off in these remaining two matches and then both Andros Townsend and the Newcastle fans can look forward to England and the Euros for some light relief.

Andros Townsend:

“In the first half of the season when I wasn’t playing much, I was staying out for two or three hours with one of the other players, just taking free kicks – left foot and right foot, every angle.

“All that stuff pays off when you score in front of 52,000 people to help your team get three points.

“You can see how much we have to focus on Newcastle at the minute so no, I’m not letting my mind think about England.

“The manager (Roy Hodgson) knows my game inside out and he knows what I can do; if he feels that I can offer something, if he wants a player like myself in the squad, he will pick me like he has shown before.

“But no, I’m not thinking about it. My main focus is helping Newcastle stay in the Premier League.

“If anything happens on the back of that, then great – if not, then I’ll go away and prepare for next season.”

“It wa probably the most important club goal of my career, to be honest, they were difficult to break down and I couldn’t see, in that first half, where the goal was going to come from.

A massive relief when the final whistle went at the end because we had our backs against the wall in the last 20-25 minutes.

“I was beating myself up at half time; I missed a few chances and was a bit wasteful when coming inside so I knew I had to give something to the fans and give something to players to make up for the first half and I was delighted with the free kick that went in.”

To bet on 5/1 Andros Townsend making the England Euros squad go HERE

Full details of all the contenders, including 6/1 Jonjo Shelvey, Jack Colback 14/1 and Andy Carroll 6/1, go HERE.

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