Newcastle United Under-21's defeat Sunderland in Premier League 2

Shields Gazette

Joe Buck and Dominic Scurr discuss and dissect Newcastle United Under-21's 3-2 win over Sunderland. They also analyse who impressed, what Ben Dawson said after the game and what the future could hold for some of the players on display.

Transcript

00:00 Sunderland 2, Newcastle United 3 in the Under-21s Premier League 2 this afternoon. Joe, good

00:10 afternoon of football from Newcastle's youngsters and a really good result and they definitely

00:15 needed it.

00:16 Absolutely, I think we both came in today when we saw the team sheets, Sunderland had

00:20 six first team players, you do think it's going to be a struggle for Newcastle. Newcastle's

00:26 some of their main players are injured, out in internationals, some are even with the

00:31 first team in Dubai so you do think they're going to struggle but to be fair they put

00:34 in a really good performance. They barely gave Sunderland a sniff really, they got the

00:37 early goal. Sunderland to be fair got it back and then straight away Newcastle got it and

00:42 they never really looked like relinquishing the league, it was a really good, competent

00:46 performance and it was a senior performance, they didn't look like young kids against a

00:50 lot of EFL players, they looked like a team who belonged there and a team that deservedly

00:55 won.

00:56 Yeah, I'm just saying as the wind there threatens to knock over our camera but yeah I thought

01:01 it was a bit nervy towards the end, Sunderland scored in the 95th minute of the game, there

01:04 was 10 minutes added on so that brought it back to 3-2 and it was a bit of backs against

01:10 the wall to try and see out the win but Newcastle got it over the line with relative ease at

01:15 the end and then yeah, Sunderland equalised in the first half, it was Corey Evans, 33

01:22 years old scoring against a bunch of kids.

01:25 It was a great strike to be fair to us.

01:27 It was an excellent goal but yeah Sunderland had a lot of senior experience in their team

01:33 today and Newcastle didn't at all actually. I'm looking, I had Amadou Diallo who's played

01:39 first team minutes but other than that I think it's limited, Jamie Miley's obviously played

01:45 for first team in pre-season but yeah, in terms of the players who played today who

01:51 would you say stood out to you because a lot of people watching this probably won't be

01:54 familiar with a lot of the players.

01:56 Yeah I think the first one's obviously Kyle Crossley, he got two goals but he was brilliant,

02:01 he led the line really well I think and he took his goals well, he didn't to be fair

02:05 he didn't have too many chances, I don't think Newcastle had too many chances in the whole

02:07 game but what they did have, you know they put away and yeah Crossley was really good.

02:12 I thought Diallo, I thought he was good, he got the assist at the end, I thought he was

02:16 good, he was lively, I think his end product just lacked a little bit but I think that'll

02:19 come with his development but he was really good and I thought Heffernan at the back,

02:23 I thought he led the team really well and as I said they were against Mason Birstow

02:27 who'd come from Chelsea at Sunderland, he's highly rated by Chelsea and the fact that

02:31 he barely had a sniff, I think he had one overhead kick which was a bit speculative

02:35 but other than that yeah they didn't really have anything so I thought them three particularly

02:38 were really good but it was a real team performance, they were all excellent across the park and

02:43 even when they had a couple of injury issues it came off, Alfie Harrison came off, Jordan

02:47 Hacker came off, the subs did well as well so yeah I thought it was a real team performance

02:51 but yeah Crossley was the main man for me and he got the nine in my player ratings.

02:57 Oh great and yeah I thought Heffernan was good as well, like you say he's had a put

03:02 Newcastle back in front in the first half and you can tell he's come from a good academy

03:10 in AC Milan and he's impressed for the under 18s, he scored in the UEFA Youth League for

03:15 Newcastle as well and making that step up to the 21s, he looks at home there and probably

03:21 just had one shaky moment in the closing stages of the game where he let the attacker get

03:26 the wrong side of him but other than that yeah I thought he was excellent and Alfie

03:30 Harrison I was keen to watch because there was a bit of fanfare over him in January because

03:34 he was Newcastle's only real signing even though he's only 18 and I thought he looks

03:40 like a player who's come from a good man's city academy, he has that swagger I think

03:46 as you put it where he glides through games, he looks comfortable on the ball and has that

03:51 pace and that turn and energy that you want to see from an attacking midfielder and I

03:57 thought he brought something to the game today and was involved in the first goal and the

04:03 third goal for Newcastle as well so yeah I was impressed by him and good to see him and

04:10 probably needs a bit more football at this level playing under 21s regularly before he's

04:14 ready to step up and pose a serious threat into the first team but yeah I was certainly

04:19 encouraged by him and encouraged by Newcastle's performance in general because went into this

04:24 game sitting bottom of the Premier League 2 needing a win against the rivals and they

04:29 got that and deserve that today. Yeah absolutely especially as I mentioned before against a

04:34 very experienced Sunderland team with Bradley, Dak and Corey Evans in particular you know

04:37 they've got loads of AFL experience so to turn up against them and to put in a really

04:41 good performance yeah it was an excellent day for Newcastle and it's just a shame that someone

04:45 like Eddie Howe wasn't there to watch that because I think he'd have loved to see that

04:48 performance there. Yeah yeah obviously in Dubai at the moment but you spoke to Ben Parkinson

04:54 after the game, Ben Dawson, Ben Parkinson who was playing on the wing, Ben Dawson you spoke to,

04:59 what did he have to say? Yeah as you can imagine he was really impressed with his team's performance

05:03 and maturity really against a Sunderland team I think he was particularly impressed by the players

05:09 that managed to step up in terms of all them injuries and the players missing and he particularly

05:13 was impressed by I think Jamie Miley he's obviously had his big injury and he was very confident he

05:18 got substituted near the end but he was really good and it's good to see someone like Miley who

05:22 has had you know a fairly lengthy injury and had come back his sort of second or third game back

05:26 and to put in a good performance as well yeah he was particularly keen on stressing the fact that

05:31 we've seen Lewis Miley come and you know go from this age to the senior team and he wants

05:36 he wants his team to be able to see that pathway but also if that pathway isn't available at Newcastle

05:40 to see pathways elsewhere you know a couple of lone players were moved on as a permanent

05:44 sort of in January up to Scotland and he just wants Newcastle to build the best players possible

05:49 and if that helps Newcastle in the future obviously that's a benefit but if not he just wants to make

05:53 this you know these players really good and I think we saw today there's certainly some talented

05:57 players in that group that just need to hopefully get some wins together I think because being

06:01 the bottom of Premier League two doesn't reflect well on Newcastle as a club and hopefully in the

06:04 future that they can develop that and then this win will inspire them to hopefully move away from that

06:09 from that danger and then you know get move up that league because there's no reason that team

06:13 should be sort of 10 points behind Sunderland because they were they were really good today

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