Dawson: Switching off cost us

BEN Dawson says that switching off and missing out on the “finer details” cost Newcastle United’s youngsters dear in the Checkatrade Trophy Tyne-Wear derby at the Stadium of Light.

The Toon coach watched his side put up a battling display in the first half but were unable to keep out the Wearsiders in the second half.

After the game, Dawson said the scoreline was harsh, he commented: “I think it was.

“We are disappointed with the first two goals, they were a little bit scrappy and we paid the price for not paying attention to the details.

“I thought we did well defending set plays in the first half. The two early goals kills the game a little bit. The third goal is a great strike and you are always fighting at that point to get back in it.”

Dawson felt United should have taken the lead as the ball rolled past Adam Wilson and Elias Sorensen after Cal Roberts’ pull back.

He said: “I thought we more than matched them in the first half. We had the best chance of the game at that point. If that goes in and you go in at 1-0 it changes things a bit. Key moments have made the difference tonight.”

Dawson felt the experience overall will put his players in good stead for the future.

He said: “Our fans never seemed to stop for 90 minutes and the lads really appreciated that and applauded them and said thank you at the end.

“It was a great experience for the lads. They learned the finer details tonight. The higher you go up in football the better opposition you play.

“The fine details make a difference. But we didn’t really do what we normally do enough.

“We normally get down and play but we didn’t do it in the areas where we want to play.

“It’s back to the drawing board. We will review the game and look at why we didn’t impose ourselves on the game as much as we wanted to.” NEWCASTLE United players were told they’d either win or learn at the Stadium of Light - in the end it proved to be the latter.

It was both a harsh scoreline for the young Magpies and a harsh lesson after holding a senior Sunderland side to a goal-less first half before collapsing after the break.

But while Sunderland shouldn’t get carried away by beating a team of kids in the Checkatrade Trophy, United’s next generation also shouldn’t feel too downhearted as their run in this competition came to an end.

Remember they weren’t even supposed to get out of the group stages and playing on the big stage on a night like this was merely a bonus.

They will have to take the positives from this and move on - and in fairness when the dust settles there will be many, not least the experience of playing in front of a decent-sized crowd.

It was hard to forget this was merely a Checkatrade Trophy third round game at times as the teams walked out to a crackling atmosphere.

Every Sunderland touch was cheered loudly by home fans and every Newcastle touch booed emphatically in the opening stages and understandably it took the game a little while to settle down.

The sound of a firework exploding in the away end also signified supporters were more than happy to make a night of it.

Chants of: “You laughed at us when we down but who the **** is laughing now” bounced around the Newcastle end with taunts of “Six in a row” quickly served up in reply.

Bone crunching challenges from Liam Gibson on Jerome Sinclair and Cal Roberts on Luke O’Nien proved the young Magpies were far from intimidated.

The first real chance of the night arrived on 11 minutes as O’Nien’s cross dropped for Charlie Wyke but Nathan Harker gathered his header comfortably.

On 16 minutes, after Newcastle had survived a series of corners, the ball fell for Tom Flanagan but he could only steer the ball wide of the target.

Five minutes later, Roberts battled hard for the ball in the corner of the park and managed to slip in teasing cross into the six-yard box but nobody could connect as it rolled agonisingly past Elias Sorensen and Adam Wilson.

Newcastle stayed on the front-foot and Roberts had another chance on the left-flank this time but his shot was palmed away by Robbin Ruiter.

There was a nervous moment when Sorensen went down with a knock but the Dane stayed on the field and decided to run the injury off.

Seven minutes before the break Bali Mumba stroked the ball past Harker but the cross into the box had crossed the line.

With 40 minutes on the clock an excellent tackle from Owen Bailey denied O’Nien when he looked odds on to test Harker.

After a mature display, the Toon