Fernández out to build on last season's success

The 20-year-old rounded off the campaign by lifting the Hong Kong Citi Soccer Sevens trophy with United’s under-23s in May, just a couple of weeks after collecting the Techflow Marine Northumberland Senior Cup thanks to a 3-1 win over Morpeth Town in the final at St. James’ Park.

Fernández’s displays in Hong Kong saw him pick up the player of the tournament trophy after Cal Roberts’ winner saw off Rangers in the final.

The flurry of gongs at the end of the season capped off a memorable first full campaign at the club for the youngster, who also made his first team debut in March’s friendly draw with Royal Antwerp in Spain.

And, fresh from an excellent end to last season, now the former UE Cornella flier hopes there’ll be more successes to celebrate in 2018 as the Magpies’ second string return to training.

“The important thing is the team, but if you can get individual things – like making your debut in a friendly, or getting player of the tournament and things like this – it’s motivation for yourself to keep going and working hard,” Fernández told nufc.co.uk.

“We got the win in Hong Kong, we won the tournament and I got the MVP of the tournament, so I was very happy with that.

“I felt I was playing quite well. There aren’t many players on the pitch, and it was a big pitch, so it was good for my type of play. You end the season with something – if you don’t win anything at the end of the season it wouldn’t have been the best feeling. It gives you a lot of confidence to start the next season.”

Fernández, who completed his move to Tyneside at the start of 2017, made 30 appearances for Newcastle’s under-23s side in all competitions in 2017/18, scoring once.

And he feels he’s benefitted from his first 18 months adapting to life at St. James’ Park.

“I’ve been getting used to English football and, as I’ve said lots of times, the game in Spain is quite different. But I think I’m getting used to it, and getting used to the tackles and things like that, which is good,” he said.

“I feel more confident now, because I’ve experienced lots of things here. It makes you try different things – before, you try to play in a more easy way, you play easy football but when you have more confidence, you can try to do the things you like to do but you don’t do sometimes, because you don’t have that confidence.”

The wideman is now back at United’s Little Benton Academy after his summer break, as he and his teammates get set to kick-off their pre-season preparations.

“I tried to disconnect a little bit from football because it had been a hard season with a lot of games, but also tried to work too,” he said.

“I want to get to my best level of confidence and fitness and be prepared to start the season. I will try to do my best, and let’s see what comes.”