The Chronicle

Sorensen progress pleases youth boss

COULD TALENTED DANE BE THE ANSWER TO MAGPIES’ CRISIS IN FRONT OF GOAL?

- By LEE RYDER Chief Newcastle United Writer lee.ryder@reachplc.com @lee_ryder

NEWCASTLE United’s teenage star Elias Sorensen has been told to keep up the hard work by Toon coach Ben Dawson.

The young Dane blasted in a hat-trick in an impressive 5-2 win at Aston Viilla on Monday night to take his goals tally to 11 for the season so far.

Sorensen’s emergence this season comes after two tough campaigns on Tyneside after the Magpies snapped him up from HB Koge.

His first few months at United resulted in a period of struggle for the youngster as he adjusted to a new country and new language.

But after battling homesickne­ss he has gelled superbly with his academy team-mates and he has become a popular member of the squad.

Dawson (pictured right) feels the fact he is being talked about by supporters as a potential first-team player is testament to both the club’s recruitmen­t team and the academy coaches.

He said: “The recruitmen­t department brought him in at 16 a few years ago and he was playing firstteam football at the time. “He came in and he was straight in with the Under-23s at Wolves away. “That was a bit of a different experience for him so he had to work and train with the Under-18s. “He’s had to work hard and bide his time. A lot of the performanc­es are down to him.

“We can give him little bits of detail and put the practice sessions on for him but ultimately he has to put the effort in on a dayto-day basis and he’s doing that well.”

Newcastle’s reserves have won four games on the spin in all competitio­ns and after finishing last season 10th in the Premier League 2 Division 2, the Magpies are now up to seventh in the table.

They are on the brink of qualifying for the next stage of the Checkatrad­e Trophy as well as making a good start to the group stages of the Premier League Cup.

Dawson said of the winning streak: “I have spoken recently about this, but more pleasing for me is the performanc­es.

“We’re getting it down and playing football. Defensivel­y we are looking stronger.

“Even when we do have to make changes, everybody is understand­ing of what we want and they are improving.

“If you get that consistenc­y of performanc­e you do tend to get results off the back of it.

“We review the games and look at individual performanc­es but also the team effort.”

 ??  ?? Sorensen, pictured scoring against Fulham in the Premier League 2 this month, has 11 goals this season
Sorensen, pictured scoring against Fulham in the Premier League 2 this month, has 11 goals this season

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom