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Newcastle's unsung hero's 'tireless work' cameras don't see pays off after £30m decision

Osula has made great strides on the training ground thanks to the efforts of a key member of Eddie Howe's backroom team

Sean McCormick is a football writer covering Newcastle United for ChronicleLive. After starting his career covering North East sport, he has had a spell working as an editor on the Manchester Evening News. He also writes about darts and boxing. He joined us in 2016.

Eddie Howe speaks to Newcastle United's Will Osula, who played a key role in Bruno Guimaraes' winner against Fulham

Eddie Howe speaks to Newcastle United's Will Osula, who played a key role in Bruno Guimaraes' winner against Fulham (right)

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Each time William Osula steps on to the pitch with Newcastle he is gaining more trust from Eddie Howe.

And after his match winning contribution in the Magpies' 2-1 win over Fulham, that trust is surely set to grow even more.

The 22-year-old was only introduced as an 86th minute substitute for Nick Woltemade but he only needed four minutes to make his impact.

With the game poised at 1-1, Osula picked up the ball on the halfway line, drove at the Fulham backline and unleashed a wicked left-footed shot down low to Bernd Leno's right-hand side.

The Germany international goalkeeper got down well to save it but he could only parry it into the path of Bruno Guimaraes who fired home the winning goal from the rebound.

It was an inspired substitution from Howe, who has brought Osula off the bench eight times in the Premier League already this season.

When Newcastle are sometimes lacking inspiration or needing a spark, Howe often turns to Osula to cause some carnage.

He did that against Liverpool, scoring the equalising goal against the champions and perhaps the beauty of how raw the Danish forward still is, is that he is so unpredictable.

But the work to polish his game is slowly paying off, with Howe praising first team coach Graeme Jones for 'working tirelessly' with the young forward to develop his talent.

"Really pleased with Will because he is not 100% fit as he is nursing an ankle injury so we have to manage him correctly," Howe told reporters after the win.

"But there is big development in his game and he is coming on the pitch to influence matches. He made a big impact and chose the right time to shoot and our captain was there to finish it off for us.

"There has been big growth in his game and he was worked tirelessly with Graeme Jones who has done a lot of work with him. Every time Will plays he makes the most of his minutes and I am slowly but surely trusting him with more minutes."

Howe also praised his attitude since his deadline day move for a reported £30million to Eintracht Frankfurt fell through.

In the absence of Yoane Wissa, Osula is making the most of his opportunities and there is every chance he starts against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Wednesday evening.

He still needs to improve tactically but he is slowly building towards becoming a player Howe will count on for more than just causing a bit of carnage up front.

Howe clearly appreciates his work on the training ground to improve and it is beginning to pay off on the pitch, too. There is a future at Newcastle United for Osula if he wants it.

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