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Elliot's Joy Of Six
Written by Newcastle Utd
Rob Elliot spoke to nufc.co.uk after Sunday's victory over Norwich, in which he returned to the starting line-up
By Dominic Scurr
Goalkeeper Rob Elliot was keen to reiterate his passion in playing for Newcastle United following the Magpies' 6-2 home victory over Norwich City on Sunday.
It was the United stopper's first Barclays Premier League start since December 2014 and it proved to be a memorable one as Newcastle picked up their first league win of the season in emphatic fashion.
Four goals from Georginio Wijnaldum, a first St. James' Park strike for Aleksandar Mitrovic and another from Ayoze Perez capped off a result that lifted the Magpies off the foot of the table.
And Republic of Ireland international Elliot, who was handed a starting spot following a serious knee injury to Tim Krul, told nufc.co.uk: "It's a great result for us and just what we needed.
"It relieves a lot of stress for the players and the fans after a difficult start to the season.
"I think that sort of result was coming, it was just a case of us having all the pieces just not being able to put them together.
"There's still things to improve on - you don't want to concede two at home - but the response from our players when Norwich had us pegged back was fantastic.
"It was an amazing team display. Gini, Ayoze and Mitro got the goals but you could have picked a number of the lads for man of the match - it was just top class.
"The crowd were top class as well. There was loads of support and cheers for me in goal and I think they understand my situation because I've been here for a long time and I always make sure I give my best.
"I love playing for this Club and there was a point where I didn't think I'd play for Newcastle again, so any chance to play is just amazing."
Newcastle travel to local rivals Sunderland on Sunday and Elliot hopes the Norwich victory will help spur the Magpies on to a triumph in the Tyne-Wear derby.
"Now we go into the derby and it's not just about the game," he continued.
"It's massive, it's about the pride of the club and the pride of the city.
"We need to make sure we do the fans and ourselves justice in the derby and this result will hopefully give us great confidence and momentum going forward.
"We've shown we can excite, we've got some really good attacking players and now we just have to make sure we can work hard together to attack, as well as defend.
"They've got a new manager in and they're at home so it is going to be tough, as the last few derbies have proven.
"So we can't afford to take anything for granted because it's not going to be an easy game. We need to make sure we're doing all of our jobs properly.
"If we can have the same mentality and performance that we showed against Norwich then hopefully we can get the right result."