Andy Hinchliffe in awe of Ben Johnson defending v Newcastle
Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchcliffe was blown away by West Ham ace Ben Johnson for an eye-catching piece of defending against Newcastle.
The moment came just after the Hammers levelled the score through Jesse Lingard’s penalty – his ninth goal of the season.
Newcastle responded immediately and Jacob Murphy blasted a shot goalwards that was blocked on the goalline by Ben Johnson.
A minute later Joe Willock scored what proved to be the winner, but Hinchcliffe was full of praise for Johnson nonetheless.
On Sky Sports’ coverage of the match, he said, “An extraordinary clearance off the line from Johnson.
“We’ve seen some shambolic defending over the course of the game but Johnson, how brilliant was that getting back on his goalline to repel the shot from Murphy.”
Great character
The result at St. James’ Park was one to forget but we can still take positives from the match.
To go down to ten men and two goals behind was tough to take but the boys responded remarkably well to the setback and clawed their way back into the match.
And that happened without key players on the pitch such as Declan Rice and Michail Antonio.
David Moyes will be disappointed with the goals conceded, perhaps the third more so because we had only just got back into the match.
But for Johnson, we would have conceded earlier, and the youngster deserves praise for the maturity he has shown when coming into the side.
To put things into perspective, West Ham have lost just four of the 13 league games Johnson has featured in, and three of those came against the Manchester clubs.
He does not show the same dynamism in attack as Arthur Masuaku, but he is solid in defence and gives very little away.
In other West Ham news, ‘Calamity’, ‘Keystone Cops stuff’ – Souness destroys West Ham star after display v Newcastle.