Newcastle United coach makes St James’s Park ‘development’ claim

A dramatic 94th minute equaliser from Sunderland Under-21s goalkeeper Alex Bass saw The Young Magpies held to a 1-1 draw in front of 2,511 fans. Joe White had put the hosts in front in the first half before Bass’ late leveller which the goalkeeper later admitted went in off his arm.

As expected, there was a fiery atmosphere between the two teams and sets of fans as tempers flared on numerous occasions. Newcastle midfielder Jay Turner-Cooke was also shown a second yellow card in the second half following an altercation involving Bass.

Under-21s lead player development coach Elliott Dickman felt Turner-Cooke needed to handle his emotions better in the match but felt the rest of his side handled the occasion well, despite the late heartbreak.

“I thought they were good and I thought they handled it fine,” Dickman told The Gazette. “It's another learning opportunity for them moving forward.

"Our fans were brilliant and the atmosphere was really, really good. It's a fantastic experience for these young lads to be playing in such a fantastic arena on our home pitch with a good crowd.

"They'll need to be able to deal with that moving forward, it was nowhere near full obviously but if it was or when they do play in front of bigger crowds they've got to be ready for that.

"It's small steps, it's part of their development and hopefully one or two might get that opportunity to play in front of bigger crowds in the future, whether it's at here or elsewhere.”