Asmir Begovic reacts to news of Everton v Newcastle protester prison sentence
Asmir Begovic reacted online to the news that the protester who cable-tied himself to the Everton keeper’s goalpost has been sentenced to prison.
Just Stop Oil activist Louie McKechnie attached himself to the frame of the goal during a dramatic encounter with Newcastle at Goodison Park on 17 March, leading to a 10-minute delay as he was removed.
The Toffees recorded a vital 1-0 win on the night when Alex Iwobi scored in the 99th minute, after Allan had been shown a controversial red card.
Begovic, 35, clearly did not expect someone to appear from the crowd in the way they did, and has now joked about his fear after the news that McKechnie has been given six-week prison sentence and three-year football banning order [BBC News, 30 September].
Writing on his personal Twitter account on Friday evening (30 September), in reaction to the sentencing story, the keeper said: “Scared the [expletive] out of me”.
Drastic
Begovic may be fairly long in the tooth as a professional footballer but he wouldn’t have expected the delay that occurred back in March.
Clearly a protest is pretty meaningless if it doesn’t grab attention, and that was certainly the case at Goodison, not that Toffees fans were particularly ready to accept that premise at the time.
The relegation battle was in full flow, and despite Craig Pawson upgrading his booking of Allan to a red for a foul on Allan Saint-Maximin, in what was just one of many dubious officiating decisions late in the campaign, Everton came out on top.
Begovic has only played 14 games in total for the club, but he chose a particularly event-filled one to deputise for Jordan Pickford that night, as it took the 14 minutes of added on time to find a winner.
The massive bolt cutters that were sourced to remove McKechnie from the post, and the face of the man who used them were almost as memorable as the late goal, so the whole episode made its mark.
With another win at Southampton on Saturday (1 October) Frank Lampard looks to be building a strong run at the moment, which should keep his team from falling into another relegation battle like last year, while Begovic’s clean sheet in the first win of the campaign over West Ham (18 September) proved the decision to keep him this summer a sensible one.