Ex-England goalkeeper wowed by Christian Atsu's performance in Newcastle FA Cup draw against Rochdale

Former England international goalkeeper Paul Robbinson has praised Christian Atsu for his dominant performance in Newcastle United's FA Cup 1-1 draw against Rochdale.

The Ghanaian was deployed in an unfamiliar left wing-back position but he excelled as he set up Miguel Almiron to open the scoring for Newcastle.

However, Rochdale equalised to set up a replay.

When asked about Newcastle’s disappointing draw with Rochdale, Robinson told Football Insider: “I thought the two wing-backs Atsu and Yedlin dominated the game, particularly Atsu on the left-side.

“I thought in the first half it was a textbook display by Newcastle on how to play a lower league side, Steve Bruce would have been disappointed that they only got one goal.

“They only didn’t win the game as they didn’t perform in the second half, they also lost Almiron to injury so that added to his growing injury list, so, all in all, it turned out not to be a good game for them.

“I thought Atsu and Yedlin were both very very good yesterday as they were positive in the first-half but as I said it eventually ended up being that Bruce couldn’t take many positives from the game as more injuries and due to a replay he didn’t want.”

Atsu has been sparingly-used this season with him racking up 18 appearances across all competitions.

The 27-year-old has only completed 90 minutes three times across his 16 Premier League outings in the current campaign but has still managed to rack up three assists.