Indeed, seven of the club's last nine goals have come from defenders with Yedlin and Ciaran Clark, who is joint-top scorer with midfielder Jonjo Shelvey on two, firing the Magpies to a 2-1 Premier League victory over Bournemouth.

However, the 26-year-old United States international said: "A lot of people look at the attackers and think, 'What are you doing?'. But what a lot of people don't realise is the defensive work that strikers do for us.

"They make the game a lot easier for us with their pressing and the way they push. They are doing a lot of the dirty work and deserve the credit as well.

"It goes a bit unnoticed, but it's a massive help for us."

It was Yedlin's ability to get forward from right wing-back which dragged Newcastle back into Saturday's game as he cancelled out Harry Wilson's opener for the visitors with a spectacular diving header – the goal surviving scrutiny from the video assistant referee.

Asked about his initially muted celebration, he said: "Nobody wants to look stupid by celebrating an offside goal, but at the end of the day, it counted.

"I just did what I had to do to get the ball in the back of the net. I know when Allan Saint-Maximin has the ball in that situation and he's coming back to shoot, I need to take a gamble and come in.

"I didn't know if it was on target, but I might as well make it on target. I didn't really know much about it at first and I didn't hear the crowd react, so maybe I thought it was offside.

"It went to VAR and fortunately, it counted."

Clark's close-range 52nd-minute strike ultimately won the day, but Yedlin's effort – his third for the Magpies and his first at St James' Park – proved a fitting way to atone for his error in the build-up to Wilson's goal.

He said: "I was supposed to be on Josh King for that one, so it was good I scored to make up for it. I lost concentration on that, but it happens and that's why you have team-mates around you."