Lack Of Consistency Frustrates Beardsley

By Tom Easterby - Newcastle United Club Reporter

Peter Beardsley was left frustrated by his side's lack of consistency after Newcastle United Under-23s were beaten 3-1 at West Ham United on Monday night.

The Magpies beat Norwich City 3-0 on the opening day of the Premier League 2 season last week.

But they were undone by two first half goals, the first a penalty, from Antonio Martinez and Marcus Browne which left them trailing 2-0 to the Hammers at the break.

Martinez's second wrapped up the points at the Chigwell Construction Stadium before Tom Heardman bagged a late consolation for the Magpies.

But football development manager Beardsley expressed his disappointment that his side were some way off reaching the level of performance they turned in against the Canaries last time out.

"That's the frustrating thing. We've talked to them before about being consistent, and that is like from one extreme to the other, especially in the first half," he told nufc.co.uk.

"In the second half, there's always going to be a reaction, whether we say anything or we don't. That's football, and they'll just have to learn to be consistent.

"In that sense, it's about the individual - is he doing what he did last week? And then if you do that, and eight, nine or ten of you do that, then you'll end up doing what you did last week.

"But the difference was like chalk and cheese. I'm really disappointed."

United struggled to make their mark in a first half dominated by the Hammers and their pacy forward line of Browne and Martinez.

And Newcastle's toils at the other end were lamented by Beardsley, who saw his side work their way into good positions without managing to worry the hosts' goalkeeper Nathan Trott.

"We didn't score any goals or create chances in the first half, but we had good situations, and that for me was the disappointing thing - that we had good situations but we never worked their goalkeeper," he said.

"He probably only made three saves all night, but not one in the first half, and he never looked like he was going to have to make a save in the first half, so we never tested him."

The Magpies travel to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa next Monday, in their third away game in succession at the start of the 2016/17 campaign.

Beardsley is hoping his side will have learned their lessons from the Hammers defeat by the time they're back on the road for the Midlands in a week's time.

"Whether it be the first team of any club, the reserve team of any club or the youth team of any club, you can't give anybody a 2-0 headstart," he said.

"Because of that, they'll learn from it and that's what this is all about. It's a learning process. If they learn and they realise 'we did this last week - we can't do it this week', so they're switched on from the start next week, then that's ultimately what matters."