Newcastle United’s Jacob Murphy has revealed how he got his time at the club up and running after initially struggling to adapt to life at St James Park.
The winger joined the Magpies from Norwich City in a £12 million deal last summer and had a difficult start to life at the club.
Murphy has however since become one of the most important players in the Magpies first team and played his best game for the club yet when they defeated Stoke City on New Years Day.
Rafa Benitez will be hoping to get more good performances out of the England Under 21 international as the Toons look to avoid relegation.
“I was just dying to play,” Murphy told the matchday programme.
“And when I was coming on, I was putting pressure on myself, trying to do things that I don’t normally do, because I was trying to catch the eye, get fans of their seats and stuff.
“Then I just thought ‘wait – stick to what you know, and it’ll come good in time’. Once I started the games, from the Manchester United game, it took me 10 or 15 minutes to settle into the match, but then things were coming off for me and I started finding more confidence.
“As each game’s gone on, and I’ve played more minutes, I’ve relaxed into it. I like to think I’m a confident boy, but when I was coming on and not doing well, people weren’t really taking to me straight away.
“It was a bit like ‘am I ever going to play well?’. But I know that, in time, it would come good. All I needed was a run of games to find my feet, and then I’d be cooking on gas.”
