Newcastle stalwart echoed Virgil van Dijk with classy post-match message to Rio Ngumoha on Monday | OneFootball

Rio Ngumoha broke Newcastle hearts in show-stopping fashion on Monday night, but that didn’t deter one Magpies player from undertaking a gracious post-match gesture.

The 16-year-old came on for his Premier League debut in the sixth minute of stoppage time at St James’ Park with the game level at 2-2, and he needed just four minutes on the pitch to fire home a dramatic last-gasp winner for Liverpool.

Virgil van Dijk later advised his younger teammate to revel in the moment while also urging him to keep working hard behind the scenes, telling Sky Sports: “He has to keep working hard and stay humble, but he definitely has to enjoy these nights because you can’t take them for granted.”

Dan Burn graciously congratulates Ngumoha

A similar message was communicated by Dan Burn to Ngumoha after the pulsating contest on Tyneside, as reported by Paul Joyce for The Times.

Before the Liverpool squad left St James’ Park, the towering Newcastle defender made a beeline for the teenage Reds winger and sportingly congratulated him while also ‘urging him to enjoy the moment’.

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

A classy gesture from Burn on Ngumoha’s night of glory

While the Alexander Isak transfer saga may have fuelled tensions between the two fanbases prior to the fixture, and the match itself was a tempestuous contest with a few flashpoints, this was a brilliantly magnanimous gesture from the Magpies centre-back.

As sickened as Burn must’ve been after the game, considering how his team were consigned to yet another stoppage-time defeat at the hands of the Merseysiders, he set aside any personal anguish to seek out Ngumoha and pass on a gracious message to a player 16 years his junior.

It’s impossible for us to fully comprehend just how ecstatic the teenager must’ve felt on Monday night, and it’s just as well that he was back in training yesterday to come back down off such a stratospheric high and begin preparing for next weekend’s huge showdown against Arsenal.

Arne Slot will be striving for the right balance between giving the winger’s talents sufficient scope to shine and refraining from overburdening him, and his development still needs to be managed carefully throughout the campaign.

From what we witnessed in pre-season and at St James’ Park, though, Ngumoha seems to have the perfect combination of maturity and natural ability to take it all in his stride, and he must privately have been buzzing even more after the humble congratulations from Burn.