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Turner-Cooke ready for play-off push
Written by Luke Vinton
Jay Turner-Cooke is determined for Newcastle United Under-23s to return to winning ways ahead of Monday's Premier League 2 trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The young Magpies take on their Wolves counterparts at Molineux (kick-off 7pm BST) and, with three league fixtures remaining, can move into the Division Two play-off spots with a much-needed victory.
After away defeats at Stoke City, Middlesbrough and Burnley, Turner-Cooke - who joined Newcastle's Academy from Sunderland in January 2021 - is targeting a positive result on the road to enhance their promotion hopes.
"We're very determined to return to winning ways," the 18-year-old attacking midfielder told nufc.co.uk. "We've picked up defeats in our last couple of games and not performed to the standards we set ourselves throughout the season.
"It's a big game as Wolves are amongst it as well so we want to cement our place in the play-off spots which we can hopefully do by winning the game on Monday night.
"It's three massive games. We knew what we wanted to do at the start of the season and that was trying to get promoted. We've came this far as a team, performing well, and we don't want to let it slip away. We want to push on and try to get promoted which would be massive for the club.
"We haven't won away in four games and we definitely want to get to back to winning. The performance levels from us haven't been to the standards we've set.
"Having the game at Molineux will be a good performance, too, and we'll want to go there and put on a show.
"You have a good, competitive nature when you play under-23s football as any team can beat anyone on their day. We've been working hard in training and making sure we give ourselves the best chance to gain three points."
Turner-Cooke's strike at Burnley last week, an impressive long-range effort, took his goalscoring tally to ten for the 2021/22 campaign at second-string level.
The South Shields-born youngster admitted he has been pleased with his displays in front of goal for Newcastle's second-string this term and is hopeful of continuing his run towards the latter stage of the 2021/22 campaign.
"I'm buzzing to get into double figures with the under-23s," he added. "I've got 14 goals for both the under-23s and under-18s and six assists so I've got 20 goal contributions which, in the position I play in, is what I want to do so I'm really happy with how the season has went.
"I have to back myself. This season, I've shown what I'm capable of and hopefully I can kick on again, definitely into next season, and see where that takes me."