Watson: "I'm Delighted For The Lads"

By Dominic Scurr

Under-18 coach Dave Watson was relived to see his Newcastle United side finally end their six-game losing run with a stoppage-time winner against Derby County on Saturday.

The Little Benton crowd witnessed a brilliant game in which the Magpies came out 5-4 winners - picking up their first Barlcays Under-18s Premier League points since early September.

And Watson believes the victory was largely down to United's desire to fight for all three points.

"It wasn't the greatest match in terms of the quality of play," he admitted. 

"But the amount of goals, the commitment from the players and their desire to win the game was absolutely fantastic. If you've got a lot of that in your team, it will stand you in good stead.

"I'm delighted for the lads because they've been showing signs of that attitude and that they're capable of winning games.

"We've been showing a good team spirit and putting in good performances - we just haven't been getting the results. This week we got the result which is great, but the performance was also very good as well.

"We came from behind three times, which goes to show the strength of our character. That's what got us our reward.

"They had more chances than us but I still thought we were good value for the win purely because of our determination and attacking."

The former Everton and England centre-back also joked that his defensive instincts might have changed following another high-scoring game.

"I'm in the entertainment business now," Watson laughed.

"As a defender you love to win a game 1-0 but here we've got very attack-minded players and sometimes you can get caught out defensively, but as long as we're winning, I'm happy.

"We're getting better and better, that's the process here. We've had some tough games but now we've got a decent run of fixtures so we're looking to bounce back and prove we can compete."