Watson: "There Was Nothing In It"

By Dominic Scurr

Under-18s coach Dave Watson felt his Newcastle United side were unfortunate to lose 2-0 at home to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Early second half goals from Jack Lambert and Lee Hetherington saw Boro record a Barclays Under-18s Premier League double over the Magpies, following a 4-1 victory back in September.

But much like the reverse fixture, Newcastle's coach felt the scoreline was not a fair reflection of the match.

"I thought it was a very balanced game," Watson told nufc.co.uk.

"There was nothing in it at all. Our keeper, who has been excellent for us, has just made a few mistakes and we've been punished by it.

"We struggled against the wind last week (against Wolves) but I think we learnt a lot from that and we've played the ball out much better this week, but we've just been caught out by two quick-fire goals."

Middlesbrough's two goals both had a degree of fortune about them as Lambert's wind assisted free-kick looped over Paul Woolston before the United stopper gifted the away side a second as he failed to deal with Hetherington's tame shot.

"It's just about finding that bit of luck," continued Watson.

"Performance-wise I was relatively pleased. There were some good performances from some of our players out there, we just couldn't get the rub of the green.

"It wasn't even about taking chances. Middlesbrough just had some good fortune and capitalised on our mistakes.

"But we'll be back and we'll learn from our mistakes because the lads have been on a great run and will want to get back to winning ways."

The Magpies face an away trip to local rivals Sunderland next weekend, with Watson hoping his side can claim their first local derby win of the season.

"We have to take it one week at a time," Watson added.

"We don't know what our team is going to be like but the lads know it's a big derby game and they always try to get themselves well up for it. We hope they can come away with the right result."