Sammy: 'It's Good To Be Back'

By Dan King - Newcastle United Club Reporter

Sammy Ameobi completed the full 90 minutes in his first appearance since July - and immediately set his sights on returning to first-team action as Newcastle face five games in 13 days this month.

The England under-21 international had been sidelined since the pre-season win over Braga after suffering a hamstring injury but made his comeback in the Reserves' 1-0 defeat to Southampton on Friday night.

And although he admitted that he was not as sharp as he'd like, the 20-year-old wideman is hoping to make a big impact in the weeks ahead after looking bright in the summer before his untimely setback.

Sam McQueen's second half strike proved to be the difference at Whitley Park as Newcastle's second-string failed to live up to the standards they'd set in their opening two Barclays Under-21 Premier League fixtures against Tottenham and Southampton, when they won 6-4 and 5-1 respectively.

"You're right, it wasn't great," Ameobi told nufc.co.uk. "Obviously you go into a game and you want to win but I just think in the end they wanted it more than us.

"They took their chances and it was just unfortunate that we couldn't get a goal back.

"It's been five or six weeks since I played my last game so it was good to get back on the pitch but I was a little bit disappointed with my own performance.

"Obviously I'm not 100 per cent fit at the moment - and I think it showed as well. I was quite tired at times but it's something I can work on.

"I'm just trying to work on that, get 100 per cent fit and hopefully take it from here."

It was significant, however, that the Tyneside-born star stayed on for the whole game and proved that he is now fully recovered from him training ground tweak.

And although clearly drained afterwards, he insisted: "I think I needed that. I just needed to get it out of my system and get over 90 minutes. It's gone now and unfortunately we didn't get the result we wanted but we'll just take it from here and work on that.

"Every game up until I get to my full match fitness is a positive, really, so I'm glad I got through 90 minutes and hopefully I can just keep on taking my chances and playing.

"We've got a lot of games coming up in a short period of time so hopefully I'll be in contention to play in those games, take the chances that the manager is giving me and show him that he can trust me to play and produce for him.

"In pre-season I was fully fit and playing well and I was just unfortunate to pick up a little niggle - and it's kept me out for just short of six weeks.

"I'm just glad to be back. I can't really whinge about it; I just have to get back doing what I'm doing and hopefully I get back to that stage where I was before I got injured.

"That's not going to be easy but I look forward to putting the effort in to get back there."