Callum Wilson has joked Jack Grealish now 'owes him' after talking through his assist on his World Cup debut. Newcastle United's number nine teed-up the Manchester City star for the final goal in England's rout of Iran on Monday.
Gareth Southgate's made a near-perfect start to their campaign as they romped to a 6-2 victory in their opening Group B fixture. Wilson was introduced as a late substitute, and was released behind the Iran defence by Jude Bellingham in the 90th minute.
The in-form Magpies striker looked to be shaping to shoot despite a narrow angle, but instead cut the ball back for Grealish to apply the finish. Wilson believes he had 'every right' to go for goal himself, but feels he made the 'right decision' despite the Three Lion's four-goal lead at the time.
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He told the Lion's Den: "As I'm running through on goal, I've took a touch, looked up and I could see everyone running back. The goalie has just narrowed the angle, I took another touch and looked again, and thought it's tight here.
"It's one of them I could guarantee a goal or go for it myself. I made the decision in that moment to square it, and Jack owes me one! It's a strange one because if the game was different, I would have played that same scenario out again. I think I made the right decision in that moment, albeit we were 5-1 up and I had every right to go for goal."
Wilson replaced captain Harry Kane in the 76th minute, but had looked set to come on alongside Grealish and Marcus Rashford five minutes before. TV cameras showed the 30-year-old sitting back down after a warm-up, and the five-cap international explained a setback for Harry Maguire forced a late rethink from Southgate.
Wilson added: "Harry [Kane] went down unfortunately, so I started warming up out of experience. Make sure you're ready, and the manager turns around and says you're coming on, so I was like perfect. There was a few of us coming on and I was ready, and then Maguire had a situation.
"So basically the manager was like I'm going to leave it for a minute, and we'll revisit in about 5-10 minutes. I was like perfect, no worries. For me, I just take it in my stride.
"I'm enjoying the experience of being here, and I knew if it's not going to be this game, it might be the next game. I need to always stay ready, and when it did come I made sure I was mentally in the right place to try and affect the game."
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