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Watson Happy With Well-Worked Win
Written by Newcastle Utd
Dave Watson was full of praise for his in-form Newcastle United Under-18 side after their fourth win in five
By Dominic Scurr
Dave Watson was full of praise for his in-form Newcastle United Under-18 side following their home victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
The Magpies have now won four of their last five Barclays Under-18s Premier League games and Watson was pleased to see another combative win from his side this weekend.
"The side showed a great togetherness," he told nufc.co.uk.
"They dug deep and were really determined to hold out for the win, which is really good to see as a manager.
"I thought our performance was very good in the first half, we dominated for long periods and played some good football. We struggled early on and went a goal down but we got back into it and started to control the game.
"The conditions made it much more difficult for us in the second half. The wind was against us which meant we couldn't play the ball out as we would have liked, which put us under a bit of pressure at times, but we managed to hold on."
United were without top scorer Lewis McNall, as well as Owen Gallacher and Jamie Holmes, who enjoyed an 8-1 friendly victory over Ashington with the United's under-21s recently, with McNall and Gallacher both bagging debut goals.
"A few of the lads have been called up to the under-21s side which is fantastic," Watson continued.
"That's why we're here, to develop the players and push them through into the side. It can mean we miss some of our key players but the lads who've came in have done really well."
Watson also feels his side are really starting to come together as a team after recovering from six straight losses to take maximum points from all but one of their games since.
"These things tend to happen," said the former Everton centre-back.
"The kids come in at the start of their scholarships and it can take a while for them to get settled and gel as a team.
"We've always found that the team really starts to come together in the run up before Christmas and it's proving to be that way again.
"The players are getting to know each other better and becoming away of their strengths and weaknesses and there's a good team spirit which doesn't happen overnight, but once you get that you tend to win more and more often.
"We've got a couple of tough games coming up against Middlesbrough and Sunderland and with the way some of the lads are progressing, we don't know whether they'll be playing for the under-18s or the under-21s.
"It means it's hard to tell how the games are going to play out but we're in a good place at the moment and we'll be hoping to keep it going."