Watson Can Rely On Young Magpies

By Dominic Scurr

Under-18s coach Dave Watson was full of praise for his much-changed Newcastle United side, as they claimed a second win in three days with a 3-1 victory at home to Liverpool on Saturday.

As the Reds came to Little Benton, United fielded an almost entirely different side to the one that triumphed in the FA Youth Cup at Ilkeston last Wednesday.

Only goalkeeper Paul Woolston started both fixtures and Watson was encouraged by the maturity demonstrated by the new-look line-up.

"I thought it was a good, well-disciplined performance from the team," he told nufc.co.uk.

"We were patient, didn't go chasing the game and we always looked dangerous on the counter-attack.

"We created plenty of chances and scored three good goals but we were also solid defensively.

"After the FA Youth Cup game we had to rest most of our players so a lot of that lads who came in haven't played too many games together and I thought they handled the game magnificently.

"They showed that we can rely on them to win games and do an excellent job for us. Unfortunately, we can't have everyone play every game so it was important that those players who wouldn't usually start games like this got their chance to perform, and that's just what they did."

Ovie Ejdma's strike saw United go a goal down for all of a minute as Oliver Long's chipped effort levelled things up. And then efforts from Lewis Suddick and Louis Johnson confirmed the win.

Watson was quick to point out the importance of the Magpies' instant response to going a goal down.

"It was vital that we got straight back into the game after going behind," continued the former Everton defender.

"Liverpool were seeing a lot of the ball before the goal and we could have easily felt sorry for ourselves but our reaction was excellent and a crucial factor in getting the win.

"When you consider the fact that we played such a young team with players who don't often play all at once, it's probably one of our best results of the season."