'He is a young man and he's made mistakes' - Newcastle boss' view on striker

Newcastle United travel to Arsenal today, and Scott Wilson has been remembering a day when Andy Carroll helped the Magpies outfire the Gunners

ANDY CARROLL experienced plenty of ups and downs during his seven seasons as a Newcastle United player, but perhaps his greatest moment for his hometown club came in November 2010 when the Magpies travelled to the Emirates to face Arsenal.

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Chris Hughton’s Newcastle side went into the game on a high, with the previous weekend having seen them thrash Sunderland 5-1 in the Tyne-Wear derby thanks to a hat-trick from Kevin Nolan and two goals from Shola Ameobi. Even so, few gave them much of a hope against Arsene Wenger’s all-conquering Arsenal.

There was controversy in the build-up to the game, with media reports claiming Carroll and Nolan had been part of a group of players who celebrated the derby win with a raucous party at Nolan’s house that culminated in a 5.45am trip to McDonald’s.

Carroll’s party-loving reputation was already well-established at this point – a couple of weeks earlier, he had been fined £1,000 after admitting to assaulting a man in a nightclub - but Hughton backed the Gateshead-born striker in the build-up to the game and selected him as the attacking spearhead of a side that featured Fabricio Coloccini and Mike Williamson at centre-half, with Nolan and Cheick Tiote starting at the heart of a midfield line-up that also included Joey Barton and Jonas Gutierrez.

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Newcastle went into the game having gone more than 400 minutes since their one and only previous goal at the Emirates, but that changed as Carroll scored what proved to be the winner on the stroke of half-time.

Bacary Sagna fouled Gutierrez in the centre of the pitch, and after Barton lofted a free-kick into the area, Carroll outjumped the Arsenal defence to loop a header over the advancing Lukasz Fabianski.

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Newcastle rode their luck somewhat from that point onwards, with Cesc Fabregas hitting the crossbar with a free-kick and Theo Walcott also crashing an effort off the woodwork, but with Carroll leading the line superbly alongside Shola Ameobi, Hughton’s side held on to claim a famous win.

“With Andy, it's about making sure that all the headlines he is making are on the back pages,” said Hughton after the game. “He is a young man, he has made mistakes, but he has got to make sure he learns from those mistakes, and I am quite sure he will.

“He is an environment here where he is getting a lot of support from the club, certainly the staff and the supporters, and I am quite sure his concentrations will be very much on football, 100 per cent.

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“Young professional footballers are easier targets. They have a different lifestyle, as people see it. They are young, privileged men and that's how people see it. They have got to make sure they don't get caught up in the pitfalls of it all.

“All we can do for our part is support him and create an environment in which he can flourish. At the moment, he is a young man who is playing very well on the back of an excellent performance at Arsenal. The reason why we gave him that number nine shirt is because we saw that potential in him, and we hope that continues.

“He is a player in form. He is, of course, a little bit different to a lot of the other England strikers at this particular moment, which perhaps sets him apart. He is an old-fashioned centre-forward, he is left-sided and has a prowess in the air. He is certainly different.”

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Wenger was impressed with Carroll’s barnstorming centre-forward display, tipping the striker for the international honours he would eventually go on to achieve.

“Carroll is a handful,” said Wenger. “Our two centre-backs handled their strikers very well. They were our best players. Carroll reminds me of Mark Hateley, who I had at Monaco. They are similar types. If it was up to me, he would play for England.”

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Carroll had only recently signed a new five-year contract with Newcastle, but his performances were already attracting plenty of attention and by the time the transfer window reopened at the start of 2011, it had become increasingly clear that the Magpies were going to struggle to hold on to him.

In the end, they couldn’t. Newcastle officials turned down an initial bid of £30m from Liverpool on deadline day, but relented when the Merseyside club increased their offer to £35m later in the day.

Carroll headed to Anfield in a deal that made him the most expensive British footballer of all time, but his time as a Liverpool player was a disappointment, resulting in just 11 goals from 58 appearances.

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He headed to West Ham, where he had more success over the course of seven seasons, before eventually returning to Newcastle for a second spell in 2019. By this point, however, his body had been ravaged by injuries and his second spell on Tyneside was a major letdown, with Carroll scoring just one goal in 43 games.

Now 37, Carroll has spent the current campaign with National League South side Dagenham & Redbridge, where he has combined playing appearances with a recent promotion to the role of interim manager.

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