Gary Neville has been talking about Lewis Hall.
The former Manchester United full-back talking about the Newcastle United full-back after his latest match.
United drawing 2-2 with Liverpool on Sunday.
Lewis Hall was exceptional against Rio Ngumoha, then when Liverpool’s biggest attacking threat was replaced by Victor Munoz, more of the same.
Then the very final seconds of added time, Hall adjudged to have fouled Munoz in the penalty area, with the resultant penalty allowing Liverpool to escape with an undeserved point.
Gary Neville has been reflecting on Lewis Hall’s ups and down on Sunday and remembering what happened to himself in the past: “Ryan Giggs scored a goal once against me at the end of training and I had literally marked him for 45 minutes in an attack v defence. And I remember him saying to me, ‘I can run at you 50 times. You can take it off me 49 but if I score in that 50th, you’re done. And it just sums up the life of a full-back, that you can be brilliant for 89 minutes, you can be brilliant for 25 out of 26 one-on-one dribbles that you face, you can mark Ngumoha out of the game, you can mark Munoz out of the game…But what he [Lewis Hall] decided to do is what I did towards the end of my career – as an older full-back or a tired full-back – because your legs have just been worked and your thighs are hurting, you’re getting down and you just, rather than track back and think, ‘I’m going to work my legs one more time’, you just go and do that. And when that knee goes there, you then try and pull it away a little bit, which I think he did, but as soon as a forward just pops that ball past you and sees that knee, you’re done.”
Speaking to Sky Sports, Gary Neville adding: “We have all done it. I have done it. I did it against Steven Gerrard once, at Old Trafford, where you just dive in rather than just doing your work defensively. I think Lewis Hall was half complaining that it wasn’t a penalty but on his face it told you everything. And my heart sank for him because it was a brilliant performance from him [overall against Liverpool. He was the best full-back on the pitch, by a mile, in terms of his defensive work. And then he’s had to contend with that at the end. And it’s the life of a full-back.”