Newcastle United’s longest serving player ever Steve Harper has come to the defence of Magpies goalkeeper Martin Dubravka after he was criticised for Willy Boly’s late equaliser on Monday night.
The Slovakian has come under heavy fire for Boly’s added time header, with many people perceiving the goal as an error on his part. Toon cult hero Harper, however, believes he was merely showing his leadership qualities.
“I looked at it and thought he showed great leadership to try and do what he did,” he told The Chronicle. “For me, Martin is thinking ‘If I catch this ball, I can hold onto it, relieve the pressure on my defenders and the game is over.’ If he punches it, he puts it on someone else to do that.
“That tallies with the fact he is a real leader around the place and a positive presence around the club and on the pitch as well. I thought it was a foul and if the referee had given it, would anyone be surprised?
“But that’s leadership and that’s typical of Martin, he’s shouldered that responsibility despite what happened in the Spurs game and that’s why I think he’ll be fine and it’s not something that will weigh on his shoulders.”
OPINION
This seems like typical comments from a member of the goalkeepers union. Harper knows what it’s like to be between the sticks and make a big mistake that costs your team. So he’s probably trying to relive the pressure on Dubravka and give him some support after back-to-back costly errors from the Magpies shot-stopper. It’s a shame that these incidents have happened to Dubravka because he’s had a very good season up until recent weeks. The Spurs one was definitely worse than the Wolves mistake, but both are mistakes nonetheless. Whether you think it was a foul on the ‘keeper or not on Monday, the fact is that if Dubravka had simply punched the ball then this wouldn’t have happened. Instead, he tried to catch and got beaten to the ball by Boly. There might have been some foul play involved from the Wolves man, but Dubravka still chose the wrong option. Having said that, he’s a top drawer ‘keeper and he’ll bounce back from this in short order.