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Dawson lauds young Magpies' performance after Swans success
Ben Dawson labelled Newcastle United Under-23s' 4-0 away victory against Swansea City as one of the squad's best performances of the season.
Adam Wilson broke the deadlock after 41 seconds of the Premier League 2 clash at the Landore Training Centre before second-half strikes from Rosaire Longelo, Elias Sørensen and Yannick Touré confirmed an impressive victory against the Swans.
The win lifts United's second-string into eighth place in division two, where they currently lie four points adrift of the play-off spots and Dawson was full of praise for his side after a positive week of preparation ahead of the fixture in South Wales.
He told nufc.co.uk: "Overall, the performance was very good. The group have trained very well throughout the week and they transferred that onto the pitch.
"We maintained a good shape throughout the game which gave us a solid platform to play from. The game was one of our best performances of the season as it was one of our best weeks of training.
"The timing of the goal was very good after I was a bit miffed that we kicked off and gave the ball straight to them! We managed to win the ball back quickly though and put them on the back foot. That intent and intensity got us on top in the early stages which is something that they struggled to match."
The young Magpies have registered eight goals in their last three Premier League 2 matches and are currently unbeaten in four of their previous five games in all competitions.
Dawson was also delighted to see four of his United forwards register a goal as Newcastle's youngsters ended the Swans' five-game unbeaten league run.
He added: "It was good to see the starting front four all get on the scoresheet and it could have been more. The seven players behind the ball all did their jobs well and gave the front four the opportunity to do what they do best. They were all excellent, especially in the first half, and it was pleasing to see them each get a reward.
"We hadn't paid any attention to Swansea's form as teams change from week to week, as our does regularly. We can only control what we do and we've had a very good week culminating in a good performance and result.
"Like I've said, the squad trained really well and transferred that onto the pitch. That has set an improved standard that they have to try and match each week going through until the end of the season."