By Dan King - Newcastle United Club Reporter

Willie Donachie felt his Newcastle second-string players didn't deserve to lose to Berwick Rangers in a hard-fought and end-to-end friendly at Shielfield Park.

But the Reserve Team Manager, who saw his side beat Stoke 5-1 in the Barclays Under-21 Premier League on Monday, took several positives from Friday night's match.

There was another goal for Adam Campbell, who gave United the lead before Fraser McLaren and Lee Currie won the game for the hosts in front of 309 fans, while the Magpies created plenty of chances.

And he got the chance to run the rule over trialist Dan Rickard, who put in a decent shift up-front against the Scottish Third Division outfit.

"It was a good game," Donachie told nufc.co.uk. "The good thing is, we've got a group of young players who are too old for the youth team so it's great to get them a game against senior players.

"It's part of their development and obviously it wasn't as good as the Stoke game but it was a completely different team.

"We didn't have Tav (James Tavernier), JJ (Hooper) and Marcus (Maddison) off the top of my head, and we had the trialist and a few first years.

"But it was a great experience for them, a good game. I don't think we really deserved to lose the game but you've got to accept that and get on with it."

Campbell's latest strike continued his fine start to a campaign which has already seen him make his first-team debut as a substitute against Atromitos.

And Donachie said: "He just needs to keep his feet on the ground and keep working and he's got a great future ahead of him."

While Campbell recently made his senior bow, Friday's friendly saw 15-year-old Adam Armstrong make his first appearance for the Reserves.

The midfielder, who attended an England under-16 training camp last month, was a half-time replacement for Steven Logan and Donachie said: "He's a talented kid and seems to have a good attitude.

"He's got a football brain and he's technically good but he's still very young and it's still very early in his career.

"He's got a lot to do but we're hopeful that he's got a chance," added the former Scotland international who gave Slovakian 16-year-old Lubo Satka another start and brought on England youth international Alex Gilliead.

"They're good kids with a future if they keep working, but it takes time and they've got to be patient."

Despite the defeat to Berwick, United look to be in good shape ahead of their next Reserve outing against Southampton next week.

And Donachie insists Newcastle will still be full of confidence after their big win at the Britannia Stadium, when Bradden Inman hit a hat-trick.

"It was a great performance and we put into practice everything that we'd been working on, which was pleasing to Peter (Beardsley) and me," he said.

"Simple passing, hard work, forward running, being positive; they put it all together for once.

"They're scoring a lot of goals and they really played some excellent football right through the team. From Jak (Alnwick) all the way up to Adam, all of them played well."