Anthony Gordon and a pressure penalty at Goodison: Was he the right man to take it for Newcastle?

Anthony Gordon joined Everton’s academy at 11 years old and dreamed of scoring in front of the Gwladys Street end.

Now, wearing black and white stripes, the circumstances are very different. But on Saturday evening, the aim remained the same, and some of the methodology too.

Gordon begins his pre-match preparations three days early. He meditates. An underscored psychology book usually sits by his bedside. He visualises. “If a chance comes, I feel as if I’ve already lived it,” he told Gary Neville’s The Overlap in April. “My confidence comes from my preparation.”

And so this was a confident Anthony Gordon who seized the ball after Sandro Tonali was hauled down in the 35th minute — that is the character of the 23-year-old. He is a winger with the directness and self-belief to run down blind alleys and emerge through the other side.

But for all the psychology books at Harvard, the inner stillness of a cherry blossom, this was still a high-pressure environment, and one which brought an outcome he had not visualised.

Jordan Pickford saved the penalty and in this moment, after a low-quality game petered out into a goalless draw, Gordon’s personal quest had become Newcastle’s.

This has been a week on Tyneside dominated by talk of stadiums and, though those discussions centred on St James’ Park, Saturday’s game saw Newcastle’s support experience a final taste of another famous old ground.

It was, in all likelihood, Gordon’s last time at Goodison Park as well, the stadium within a 10-minute walk of his childhood home where he made his first Premier League start and scored his first senior goal.

But feelings have hardened in the intervening years. His departure from Everton was complicated, acrimonious, and all parties emerged frustrated.

Some at Everton were angered after he handed in a transfer request, but others close to Gordon feel he was scapegoated with Everton needing to sell and the player receiving mixed messages from a divided football leadership.

Either way, Goodison is known for giving a tough reception to returning players who have left in imperfect circumstances — Ross Barkley, Jack Rodwell and Joleon Lescott have all received this treatment.

But this should not have been an Anthony Gordon story. It was his third trip back to Goodison Park, after two uneventful games for him personally, and there was a feeling pre-match that some of the tensions had begun to abate — even if Newcastle chose to announce their team on social media with a picture of Gordon pointing at his new club’s crest.

Good to go at Goodison Park! 💪 pic.twitter.com/yqJmYq7KTE

— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) October 5, 2024

“I think with each time it will get slightly easier for Anthony,” boyhood Everton fan Eddie Howe said at his pre-match press conference. “But still, he’s emotional, he’s human. I think there will be lots of things going through him as he plays the game, but I think as long as he focuses on himself — and I thought he was excellent (against Manchester City) in leading the line for us — all I can ask is that he does that again.”

Those emotions were clear at the penalty award. He took the ball and took three deep breaths, his eyes closed, before laying it on the spot.

Did he focus only on himself? As he approached, he appeared to mouth ‘left’ at Pickford, his former team-mate.

This was a rare example of a penalty-taker playing mind games with the goalkeeper, rather than the other way around.

His strike was poor, and Pickford — who had already started going to his left — almost went past the ball, blocking it first with a knee, then with his face. As Gordon grimaced, Abdoulaye Doucoure, another former club-mate, jumped and screamed as he sprinted past him to celebrate with Pickford.

The winger spent the summer in Germany, where he doubtless would have been exposed to England’s major tournament penalty process. Some details are closely guarded, but some core tenets are public knowledge — to develop and control your own routine.

“I think coming through the ranks with the England youth teams, the FA brought in a process for penalties,” Gordon told Match of the Day last week. “I have my own process which means that nothing else matters in that moment except my process. I take the penalty on my terms, my time.”

Gordon’s interaction with Pickford does not fit into that process. Psychology is thinking about thinking but, in football, that can rapidly become overthinking. The moment appeared big, and he responded by talking.

Equally, there is an argument that these mind games don’t need to be seen as part of some Shakespearean redemption narrative; Gordon returning to Goodison as Hamlet to Elsinore.

This was simply one player up against someone against whom he had perhaps taken more penalties than against any other — and trying to make adjustments. Stood in the centre-circle at full-time, Gordon asked Pickford why he had dived the way he did.

“I watched the (City) game last week and he reversed it against Ederson,” Pickford told Sky Sports post-match. “The one before he went the same way. So I fancied him going to the keeper’s left.

“It’s like trying to double-bluff each other. I don’t think Ant executed it to perfection and he’ll be disappointed, but I’m there to make a save and that’s what I did.”

Pickford and Gordon at the final whistle (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

Debate will rage over whether Fabian Schar should have taken it instead. The Swiss centre-back scored one against Wimbledon in midweek, and, compared to Gordon, only faced the pressure of the game, rather than the pressure of his past.

But that argument relies on hindsight. Gordon was not on the pitch for Schar’s penalty on Tuesday night and is the designated taker with Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson out. He has shone in high leverage moments before, scoring against all of the traditional ‘big six’ last season, and is on the verge of signing a bumper new contract to reflect those qualities.

Taking the penalty away from Gordon would have come with a cost, even if Schar had scored.

He had not missed a senior penalty before today. Blocking him would have implied a lack of trust — and remember, Gordon’s own trust was damaged by Newcastle’s apparent willingness to sell him to Liverpool to solve Profit and Sustainability rule issues in the summer.

Gordon had earned the right to be penalty taker on merit, rather than on narrative, and deserved the opportunity to slay his Goodison dragon. The outcome was the issue, not the decision.

“He’s been an outstanding penalty taker,” said Howe post-match. “I see him work on it every day in training. I’ve got no issues with him taking it or taking another in the future. We really do back him, and I think he did really well today.”

Earlier, he had praised Gordon tactically, identifying his ability to play deep and calling his overall performance “really good”.

But while Gordon was bright around the pitch, that is, in a way, a given. As a winger with an outstanding work-rate, he was always likely to be visible when played centrally. But with Isak and Wilson out, Newcastle needed a striker.

Soon after the penalty miss, he attempted to square a header from which he usually would have shot. In the second half, Howe tried playing him down the left, with Barnes switching to the middle. And with 10 minutes remaining, from the right, he had his chance to score — played through by Miguel Almiron, but firing well over Pickford.

The late chance is missed (Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)

This was a scrappy game, but one which Newcastle controlled. Yet they failed to have a shot on target after Gordon’s penalty miss, while, on a personal level, Gordon has scored two goals at Goodison from an expected goals tally of 5.69.

Not every return is triumphant. But if there is any player in the Newcastle squad who will store a memory and work out how to weaponise it, that player is Gordon.

For now, he was booed by the Everton crowd as he walked off the pitch, Howe at his back. That is the place where his manager will need to remain.

(Top photo: Matt McNulty/Getty Images)