Newcastle United’s Under-18’s scored three goals in the final 20 minutes against Derby County’s Under-18’s to record their second win of the season.
With a tight game seemingly destined to end goal-less it took a moment of brilliance from winger Samuel Adjei to break the deadlock.
The youngster curling home first-time from 18 yards beyond the diving body of Rams keeper Lewis King in the 71st minute.
Thirteen minutes later Conor Newton superbly split the Derby defence with an angled cross field pass which sent in Adjei one-on-one against King. The keeper dived at Adjei’s feet to turn the ball aside, but Adjei swiftly recovered to square for Greg McDermott to tap home from seven yards.
With Derby momentarily in disarray Newton and McDermott combined to send in Ameobi to seal the victory.
Three nil down there was no comeback for the Ram’s, however, they did manage to leave the North East with the distinction of scoring the game’s best goal when skipper Jeff Hendrick netted in the 89th minute.
Hendrick beat two hesitant defenders to gain possession a yard outside the box, then weaved his way past three more challenges before cooly sliding a right-foot shot past Jak Alnwick.
The goal-packed finale was in contrast to the rest of the game, in which a 61st-minute Sammy Ameobi shot against the outside of the right post was the closest either side came to a goal.
United will now hope to build on this performance when they take on insert name of next week’s opponents while it will be back to the drawing board for Derby County.
NEWCASTLE UNITED: Alnwick, Tavernier, Dummett (Leadbitter 11), McDermott, J Taylor, Folan, Adjei, McLaughlin, Dan Taylor (Spear 64), Newton, Ameobi. Unused subs: L Henderson, Page, Johnson.
DERBY COUNTY: King, Jones, Heggarty, Garton, Le Sant, Abalimba (David Taylor 67), Connolly (Whight 73), Kelly, Ball, Hendrick, Cole. Unused subs: Severn, Witham.
