Beardsley Hails Triple Threat

By Dan King - Newcastle United Digital Editor

Peter Beardsley hailed his front three of Siem de Jong, Adam Armstrong and Facundo Ferreyra after Newcastle's under-21s beat Aston Villa on Monday night.

England under-18 international Armstrong was the star of the show, grabbing both goals in a 2-1 win at Villa Park, but De Jong claimed an assist as he played for 72 minutes while Ferreyra impressed with his workrate as well as hitting the woodwork twice.

Harry McKirdy gave the Villans a 31st minute lead, but that came against the run of play so it was no less than United deserved when Armstrong struck in each half to give the Magpies their first win of 2015 at this level.

And Football Development Manager Beardsley told nufc.co.uk: "The boys were really good.

"Siem was really good, Facundo was really good and Arma was really good so we had a good core at the top of the team. The three of them were outstanding, I thought.

"Arma got two brilliant goals. The first goal was fantastic; we were lucky in the sense that we were in the dugout and so we were right behind it. As soon as he hit it, you knew it was in.

"And it was a great flick around the corner by Siem for the second one, and a great finish.

"I thought Siem was fantastic with his understanding of the game and his awareness. Him, Chucky and Arma as a three were fantastic.

"Siem is a top player and I'm a fan of his. I was lucky enough to see him play for Ajax when they won the league on the last day of the season three years ago and he's a player, there's no doubt about it.

"He didn't want to come off tonight - he wanted to keep on going but I don't want him to get injured so that's why I took him off.

"The plan was 60 to 70 minutes and I kept asking how he was, but with it only being his second game back it was a nice bonus for us."

Argentine striker Ferreyra has taken time to adapt to the English game since arriving on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk last August but he gave former Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos a difficult night.

"His attitude is spot on and that for me is the most important thing in any footballer," said Beardsley.

"But tonight he showed good ability. He hit the post with a brilliant shot in the first half and is probably disappointed he missed the second one. Then he did a brilliant turn around Senderos and the goalkeeper made a fantastic save.

"So there were really positive signs from Chucky.

"We hit the post three times so the quality tonight was really good.

"Aston Villa play good football under Gordon Cowans, who made his England debut at the same time as I did, and it was a good open game. We went behind but Arma did us a favour with a brilliant goal, which helped.

"It's not easy when you keep losing when sometimes you haven't deserved to lose but tonight I thought we played really well and although it ended up 2-1, it could have been more."

Photograph courtesy of Aston Villa Football Club