Sam's The Man For Beardsley

By Dan King

Sammy Ameobi made one and scored one as Newcastle's Development Squad recorded a 2-1 win over Celtic on Wednesday, and Peter Beardsley hailed the performance of the tall striker.

Ameobi is hoping to follow in the footsteps of older brother Shola in progressing through the club's Academy and into the first-team, and having impressed as a substitute in the Reserves' 5-1 win over Wigan on Monday, he was superb against The Hoops.

As well as his goal and assist, he was full of intelligent flicks and passes and won his fair share of headers - but it was his workrate which most impressed Reserve Team Manager Beardsley.

"We have no doubt about Sammy's talent," he told nufc.co.uk. "I'm sick, in the nicest possible way, of telling him how much talent he's got. He just has to run about - and he ran about today.

"It's obvious. When he runs about, he's a player. When he's a bit lazy, a bit lackadaisical, he doesn't offer as much but when he plays like he did against Celtic, he can be fantastic. That's what we want to see more of from him because he was absolutely fantastic."

Beardsley also praised the performance of right-back Dan Leadbitter, who has recently had his contract extended until the end of the season after a string of injuries and was impressive in both defence and attack.

"Dan's staying until the end of the season and hopefully beyond, and he needs games," Beardsley said.

"He's unlucky because James Tavernier has been a good player for us at this level, but he's gone on loan to Gateshead now. That meant Dan thought he was in against Hibs and Wigan - but James Perch came in!

"So he's been unlucky, but hopefully from his point of view he'll now get a run in the team and show us what he can do.

"The only thing that people have ever questioned about Dan is his injury record, so hopefully he'll stay injury-free and get himself another contract."