More to come from Fernández, says Beardsley

The wide-man had spent the previous week in Ireland with the Magpies’ first team, and only arrived back in the North East in the hours leading up to the game.

Within a quarter of an hour, though, he had made his mark, teeing up Yasin Ben El-Mhanni for United’s opener.

Then, just before the break, Fernández embarked on a fine run from the left before curling beyond the Heed’s James Montgomery from 20 yards.

Beardsley feels the youngster has progressed since arriving from UE Cornellà earlier this year, but feels there is room for further improvement in the weeks and months to come.

“Physically, he looks a different shape and size, but the big thing he needs to know is when and where to dribble,” he told nufc.co.uk. “We didn’t have a go at him, but – basically – he scored an unbelievable goal, and then tried to nutmeg somebody just outside our box. So, there are things that he has to learn, but he’s that type of player. There’s a time and a place, as we told him, but that takes nothing away from the goal.

“He didn’t train with us at all this week. He only flew into Manchester last night, and then he came back to the North East with the other senior players – Jamie Sterry, Matt Ritchie, etcetera. We didn’t see him until quarter-to-twelve. But, I’m not complaining, because we know Victor well, and we know he’s a good kid.”

Victory at the International Stadium rounded off an encouraging week for the Under-23s, who won 2-1 at Darlington on Monday.

“To be fair, I think the pitch helped us today,” Beardsley said. “I’m not blaming Darlington, but the pitch was poor on Monday. Today, it was really good. It was smooth, slick, and the bit of rain before kick-off helped because of what we like to do – we like to pass the ball and move, and I thought some of the football was really, really good.

“This is what we live for – watching the players on the pitch is the best part of the job. Neil Aspin was very complementary. With all due respect, though, we’re looking for different things. We’re looking for individuals who can go in the first team – whether that’s tomorrow or a year from now. It is what we do. As I say, in an ideal world, you want to win, but it’s not the be all and end all. We don’t have to win every game – it’s more about how we play. And as you saw, we played well today.”