Dickman enjoys an Ell of a derby night
IT WAS the closest thing you will get to a Tyne-Wear derby given Newcastle United sit two divisions above their North East rivals Sunderland.
However, the Magpies enjoyed that taste of beating their local rivals at under-23 level on Monday night as a goal in each half from Dylan Stephenson secured three points in Premier League Two.
For recentlyappointed reserve team coach Elliott Dickman the win was a satisfying one against the club he left to join Newcastle’s new era.
He said: “I was pleased and especially pleased we kept the clean sheet.
“We have been speaking a
bit about that in the last few weeks so I was delighted the team did that. “It is nice to win a derby game although the sending-off of Sunderland’s Patrick Almond probably changed the game a bit.
“Up until that point I think we kept going and stuck to the game plan we had very well.
“It is never easy against 10 men but that is a different challenge for the players.
“It is twice we have come across that now and again we asked the lads to do different things and channel it in a different way. “Some of it was good – some of it could have been a bit better.
“We will pick the bones out of it and find areas where we can be better. We will work hard on it and hopefully if we come up against 10 men we can be better again.”
Sunderland actually made a decent fist of things with 10 men and wasted two good chances before
Stephenson’s second secured the victory. Dickman added: “When you are down to 10 men you have to dig in. Credit to our lads, we moved the ball quite well and our positional play was good.
“Just a little bit more care with certain aspects might have helped.”