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Home Comforts For Young Magpies
Written by Newcastle Utd
Newcastle United Under-23s play their first home game of the season when they take on Stoke City on Monday
By Tom Easterby - Newcastle United Club Reporter
Newcastle United Under-23s play their first home game of the season when they take on Stoke City at the Northumberland FA on Monday night (7pm kick-off).
The Premier League 2 clash brings United's run of three successive away games at the start of the campaign to a close, with Peter Beardsley's side looking to bounce back from their 4-0 defeat at Aston Villa in their last outing a fortnight ago.
And the Magpies' football development manager says that the pitch his team will be playing on - adjacent to Newcastle's Benton training base, and the home of Northern League side West Allotment Celtic - is in fine condition as his youngsters get set to take to it for the first time in 2016/17.
"It's looking immaculate. I had a look the other day and it looks beautiful. They've obviously done a lot of work on it, and it looks absolutely amazing," Beardsley told nufc.co.uk. "There's not a blemish on it anywhere, so we're looking forward to playing on it.
"The only thing that matters is a nice piece of grass and a ball. We travel here there and everywhere, but the most important thing when you walk out of that dressing room is the pitch, and the pitch over there looks immaculate."
The Potters are currently one place below United in the Premier League 2 Division Two table, having also taken three points from their opening three games, with the same goal difference as the Magpies.
And Beardsley says there is a "mutual respect" between the two sides, with them having met previously at the Citi Soccer Sevens tournament in Hong Kong earlier this year.
"We were in Hong Kong with them, and they're lovely people. I played against Glyn Hodges and his staff, with Mel Pejic, and they're great people," he said.
"We've both got three points so far and to be fair to Stoke, they seem to be a bit like us in the sense that they've got a lot of good youngsters, that are probably still a bit away from the first team.
"We've got the same. We think we've got some good youngsters, but when you look at the squad our manager's got and the squad their manager's got, they've still got a bit of work to do in terms of making it into the first team.
"There's a mutual respect there - we like the way they try to play and obviously we try to play the same, so it'll be a good game."
Last time out, the Magpies were comfortably beaten at Villa Park a fortnight ago, and with a number of players - including Haris Vuckic, Sammy Ameobi and Alex Gilliead - having now departed on loan, United's younger players could have a chance to stake their claims for a place in the side.
Beardsley admitted that the past few weeks since the Villa defeat have been "hard work", but says that there may now be a chance for some of his fringe players to step up and make an impact.
"The reason I say hard work is because of frustration. We lost 4-0, lost heavily, and you want to get back and play, so in that sense everybody's in the same boat," he explained.
"We need to get back to winning ways. Since then we've had the transfer window shut, and we've lost Sammy, we've lost Haris and a few others as well, and the emphasis now will be on the younger ones - can they step up and take their place? Opportunity knocks now for some of them.
"We told them that when the window shuts, what we have will be what we're going to work with. If they're playing well they'll stay in the team, if they don't they'll drop out and then someone else gets a chance, and that's what it's like now.
"You look at last year, and people like Sean (Longstaff), Jack (Hunter), Dan (Ward), Michael (Newberry) and Stefan (Broccoli) all got a chance. Now they're there on merit in the sense that they're a year older, and now they've got to stand up and be counted.
"It looks like we've got 15 or 16 players, so hopefully if they can stay fit, it'll be a good group to work with."