Newcastle United young stars with brilliant win over League Two side to progress for first time in 8 years

A great Tuesday night for the Newcastle United young stars as they beat the Rotherham United first team 1-0 at the New York Stadium.

Now renamed the Jersey Mike’s Trophy, the EFL Trophy is a cup competition for all League One and League Two clubs, plus under 21 sides from 16 Category One Academies (Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur).

After an excellent 3-1 win away (the League One and Two clubs always have home advantage) at League Two club York City and an unlucky 2-1 defeat away at League One Bradford City, the Newcastle United young stars had to beat League Two Rotherham United to ensure progress from Northern Group C.

It was 17-year-old Kyran Thompson (pictured at the top of this report) who was the match winner, a very clever finish in the 34th minute to round off an excellent team move involving Alfie Seldon and Vakhtang Salia.

Thompson chose to move from Arsenal to Newcastle United this summer and looks a real star in the making.

It was a real team effort though and a very youthful NUFC Under 21 side controlled the game, 16-year-old keeper Roman Dowell made a few saves in the first half but didn’t face a single shot on target after the break.

As well as the winning goal from Kyran Thompson, the Newcastle United young stars went close with a header from Miodrag Pivas. Michael Mills saw a free-kick well saved and the home keeper also prevented Kyran Thompson scoring his second goal.

Rotherham United are currently managed by Alex Bruce, son of our old mate Steve.

This 1-0 victory makes it five wins in a row in league and cup for the Newcastle United Under 21s.

It also means a first time in eight years that the Newcastle United young stars have progressed to the last 32 of the EFL Trophy.

That came in the 2018-19 season and ended up with the hilarious last 16 match where the Sunderland first team had the humiliation of having to play the Newcastle United kids in a competitive match. The Mackems won that game and progressed all the way to Wembley in what was then known as the Checkatrade Trophy, only to lose to Portsmouth in the final.

Newcastle (3-4-3): Roman Dowell; Henry Johnson, Miodrag Pivas, Logan Watts; Matheos Ferreira (Luke Craggs 74), Scott Bailey, Mason Miley (Jayden Kouossu 74), Dylan Charlton; Kyran Thompson (Guy Bloomer 90), Vakhtang Salia (Michael Mills 74), Alfie Seldon (Kyle Fitzgerald 74)

Unused subs: George Mair, Park Seung-Soo