Elliott Dickman could not hide his fury after Newcastle United U21s poor form continued with a shock cup defeat to Whitley Bay. The young Magpies fell to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of their non-league opponents in the Northumberland Senior Cup on Wednesday night.
Whitley Bay ply their trade in the ninth-tier of English football, but raced into an early two-goal lead as the visitors were unable to handle their pace and power. Michael Ndiweni pulled one back after the break, only for a stunning late strike from Malcolm Morien to condemn the Magpies to defeat.
It is a fourth straight loss for the young Magpies, and comes hot on the heels of a four-goal thrashing at Bristol City in the Premier League Cup. Dickman could not hide his frustration with his side's performance following the full-time whistle.
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He told ChronicleLive: "It was really disappointing. We didn't show anything if I'm perfectly honest, from the first whistle throughout. These sort of games are going to be difficult, they're challenging in a different way and we didn't match any of what Whitley Bay had which is so disheartening.
"The first thing when you come to places like this is to outwork and outfight them, and I think we just thought we had to turn up and play. That's the impression I got from our display tonight, it was really disappointing.
"It's another defeat which irritates us, there's not a lot of positives out of the game today. On Monday [a 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace], there was a hell of a lot more, but today was nowhere near the standard this football club deserves."
It was a second match in three days for Newcastle U21s, and Dickman made wholesale changes to his starting eleven. However, the Magpies boss refused to accept this as an excuse for his team's poor performance.
Dickman added: "Ultimately it's an opportunity for some players who haven't played a great deal. If that's their way of showing they want to get in the side, they've probably made it quite easy to pick the team for next Monday."
Following a poor start to the season, the young Magpies enjoyed a six-match unbeaten Premier League 2 run. This streak came to an end with a 4-2 defeat at league leaders Leeds United, where the visitors were ruthlessly punished for several defensive errors.
Newcastle are without a point or goal from their opening two Premier League Cup fixtures, with a clash against Sheffield United to come on Monday. Dickman admits the coaching staff are growing tired of stressing the same message to the squad, and believes the academy prospects could face a 'tricky situation' sooner rather than later if performances do not improve.
He said: "We can't keep saying the same thing, and the messages the lads have had is the same thing for a period of time. It'll only last for so long, and if they don't show an understanding of it which they should have anyway...to play for this football club, you have to have passion.
"You have to work hard and be part of a team, and I think those basic values, there's a number of players tonight who have let themselves down with that. If we keep speaking about character, I'm not sure where we go from a learning aspect.
"I'm not sure some of the players are getting the message as loud and clear as it should be. We have said a lot of the same things over a period of time, and for some of them it seems to be taking a little while, and some of them it just seems to show that they don'te even consider it to be important. If that's how they're feeling, they're going to be in a tricky situation unfortunately."
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