Jordan Pickford in heated row with friend Keiran Trippier in tunnel as Everton lose to Newcastle
Jordan Pickford was “eyeball to eyeball” with his England friend and teammate Kieran Trippier down the tunnel as Everton lost at Newcastle.
The pair were locked in a heated exchange as they came off the pitch at half time, moments after Anthony Gordon had been angrily confronted by various Magpies players when he went down in the box following a coming together with Dan Burn.
The Toffees winger exchanged angry words with Trippier before Fabian Schar steamed in to kick off an extended shoving match between both sets of players, and the Everton keeper was clearly unimpressed with the reaction as he continued the disagreement after the referee had brought the half to a close.
Speaking just after the half time whistle at St James Park on Wednesday (19 October, 8.22pm) Amazon Prime host Jim Rosenthal said: “Tempers flaring and another yellow card given for Gordon. And it didn’t end there either.
“I’ve got to tell you that Kieran Trippier and Jordan Pickford are great mates. They stay in touch with each other all the time. You wouldn’t think it would you?
“Animated, eyeball to eyeball, going down the tunnel at half time.”
Stood up
It was a relatively soft challenge that saw Gordon go down and Newcastle would have no doubt felt aggrieved if a penalty had been given.
But since contact in the box has been deemed enough to award recent spot kicks in the Premier League, including against Everton at the weekend, it wouldn’t have been a complete shock if it had been.
The reaction from the home players seemed over the top so it was little surprise that Pickford felt the need to stand up for his junior teammate.
The England keeper was the subject of enough attention from the Newcastle crowd as usual and would have found it particularly infuriating therefore to be powerless against Miguel Almiron’s curled strike that was perfectly out of his reach.
Frank Lampard would likely have no problem with Pickford defending his teammate, but may be concerned that home grown star Gordon appears to be developing a reputation, judging by the Newcastle players’ reactions.
It was a frustrating night and it won’t have pleased him to see so little asked of Pickford’s opposite number Nick Pope, but it was always going to be a tough one to get a result from so the players will have to move on as quickly as possible.